This work is paired with Mercury, which is also displayed here. It shows Minerva: the Roman goddess of war. The books and inkwell at her feet show that she is also patron of art and science. And of rhetoric. The man in the background is King Midas, Minerva’s counterpart. He’s the epitome of a fool, with his donkey’s ears. In the distance, Goltzius painted the Colosseum, which he had seen in Rom