The Forge of Vulcan is based on an engraving by Tempesta of 1606, for Ovid's "Metamorphoses." The realism of the figures - nudes copied from life - and of the setting depicted with a Flemish attention to detail, is balanced by a series of cultural and figurative references of literary origin. The colour, too, full of echoes and responses, of a richness that is halfway between Honthorst and Guercino, is extraordinarily refined.