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The subject is taken from Ovid's Metamorphoses (Book 3, verses 287-309). Semele was one of Jupiter's many mortal lovers. Upon discovering her husband's infidelity, Juno convinced Semele to ask Jupiter to make love to her in his full divine glory. This he reluctantly began to do, surrounded by light and thunder, as can be seen in the present picture, but the might of his power consumed her - a mere mortal - with his lightning. Mercury managed to rescue the unborn child from her womb and placed it in Jupiter's thigh, from which the child, Bacchus-Dionysus, was later born.
The musculature and turned pose of Jupiter, poised to strike with his thunderbolt, illustrate Dosso's mastery of and fascination for the human form.
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