In the context of this artwork, explain the Colours and lights of the Analysis.
The colours are dark: there are brown and dark green tones for the bushes at the left bottom corner, on the right hand side and in the middle; dark blue and shades of grey for the sky, but also very light colours, typical of the baroque style with the chiaroscuro technique, that enlighten the characters and the action and highlight their anatomy.
The light of the artwork is similar to the light of a thunderstorm; the sky is dark and the light is raw. The sky confirms this feeling of a calm before the storm and sets a dynamic characteristic to the artwork along with curves that set an impression of movement. The leaves and the heifers also give a gloomy impression because of their very dark colours.
While the landscape is a foreshadow, the scene is not violent because the murder is on the verge of happening. Mercury is dressed in blue and white while Argus is dressed in red, and these two colours are opposed. Blue refers to Mercury's divinity and white his feigned innocence. The red colour announces Argus' death because it is the colour of blood, but it also is an echo of Caravaggio's Saint Jerome whose red robe represents the colour of wisdom. It can also be interpreted as the colour of lust, as if Argus, charmed, was in the same time perverted by Mercury. The colours of the heifers are in opposition too; while Io is white, the colour of purity, there is also a black one, a symbol of fatality and death, that covers a corner of the painting, showing a point of no return.
Argus Caravaggio Io Mercury Saint Jerome