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| Jacob Jordaens Apollo and Marsyas ca. 1625 oil on canvas private collection |
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| Jacob Jordaens Abduction of Europa 1643 oil on canvas Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille |
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| Jacob Jordaens Abduction of Europa (detail) 1643 oil on canvas Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille |
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| Jacob Jordaens Mercury and Argus 1620 oil on canvas Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon |
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| Peter Paul Rubens Judgment of Paris ca. 1636 oil on canvas National Gallery, London |
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| Peter Paul Rubens Perseus freeing Andromeda ca. 1620-22 oil on canvas Gemäldegalerie, Berlin |
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| Peter Paul Rubens and Jacob Jordaens Perseus freeing Andromeda ca. 1639-41 oil on canvas Museo del Prado, Madrid |
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| Hendrick de Somer (Enrico Fiammingo) Mercury and Argus before 1656 oil on canvas private collection |
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| attributed to Frans Wouters Bacchanalia (Silenus supported by Nymphs and Satyrs, while Satyr and Nymph dance) ca. 1650 oil on panel Lamport Hall, Northamptonshire |
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| Hendrik van Balen Wedding of Thetis and Peleus before 1632 oil on panel Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels |
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| Hendrik van Balen Wedding of Thetis and Peleus (detail) before 1632 oil on panel Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels |
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| Hendrick de Clerck Contest between Apollo and Pan before 1630 oil on copper Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Abraham Janssens Jupiter rebuked by Venus ca. 1612-13 oil on canvas Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Abraham Janssens Jupiter rebuked by Venus (detail) ca. 1612-13 oil on canvas Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Abraham Janssens Jupiter rebuked by Venus (detail) ca. 1612-13 oil on canvas Art Institute of Chicago |
"In the seventeenth century, artists were better educated than ever before about ancient myth and history. Mythology had become, for educated people, a common cultural language. Its pictorial forms had gained wide dissemination – and instant recognition – through published engravings. Handbooks and dictionaries also gave ready definitions for visual symbols, allowing viewers to equate Zeus, for example, with his eagle and Hera with her peacock. Mythological subjects accommodated the century's most divergent artistic temperaments. Dramatic narratives offered rich opportunities for the energy, voluptuous forms, and exuberant color of baroque artists, while gods and goddesses of timeless perfection served equally well the still, balanced style of French classicism."
– from The Inquiring Eye: Classical Mythology in European Art, published by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC