Ingres' subject matter is borrowed from an episode in Homer's Iliad when the sea nymph Thetis begs Jupiter to intervene and guide the fate of her son Achilles, who was at the time embroiled in the Trojan War.

[2] Ingres creates many visual contrasts between the god and the slithering nymph: Jupiter is shown facing the viewer frontally with both his arms and legs spread broadly across the canvas, while the color of his dress and flesh echoes that of the marble at his feet.

Thetis' right hand falls on Jupiter's hip with a suggestion of erotic caress, while the dark green of her dress accents the dread and foreboding of the bare landscape behind.

Jupiter and Thetis was painted to meet the artist's obligations to the French Academy in Rome,[3] and although its overhand tone correctly reflected the patriarchal bias of Napoleon's regime in its contrast between male power and female subservience,[3] it is generally regarded as a rejection of such values.

[1] Ingres highly regarded the painting, and in a manner it marries the great motifs of his career: the voluptuousness of the female character and the authoritative austerity on the male deity.