Apollo, crowned with laurel and glowing in an orange robe, steps into Vulcan's smithy to tell him that his wife Venus is sleeping with Mars. Vulcan and his muscular assistants freeze mid-work, stunned. Velázquez painted it in Rome during his first Italian journey, turning a story from Ovid into a scene of ordinary working men caught in a moment of shock.
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The armour being forged is for Mars himself. Velázquez paints the steel breastplate, the anvil and the red-hot iron with almost photographic precision.
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