The story of Ixion's desire for Juno is one of the more seldom represented myths in the Renaissance. When it does appear in painting, it thematizes his punishment by Jupiter. A notable departure from this tradition is a painting created by Rubens shortly after his return from Italy to Antwerp. Instead of addressing Ixion's suffering, it concentrates on his deception as he embraces a "false" Juno fashioned by Jupiter out of clouds. This essay proposes that Rubens' interpretation draws on a specific classical reading of the myth of Ixion, as well as on contemporary theoretical ideas about pictorial eloquence.