Mercury is shown with two of his traditional attributes, the winged hat known as a petasas and his caduceus, or magic wand, with two snakes entwined.  This wand could induce sleep and was part of Mercury’s armoury of magic powers.  In this picture Mercury is shown alone, which is unusual as he is normally associated with specific events such as with Argus and with Herse, both subjects from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. This picture was published as an early work by Rubens dating from before 1600, the year he left for Italy.  However, dendrochronological tests have shown that the panel itself comes from a tree which was felled c1608.  The painting is therefore likely to be several years later.

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