Thank you!

Can't find the site, but there was a secret code to the positioning of hands, a kind of message to compliment the symbolism.

Mercury the Messenger could travel between all three realms by using his cadeccus, so connecting the terrestrial to the heavenly is as you astutely point out by clearing away the clouds spot on.

And I'd wager this painting also pays tribute to the myths of Persephone and Demeter, the West Wind, the spectre of death and winter, still trying to hold on to his bride of six months.

The painting is an elevated homage to the more courtly concepts of Renaissance sensuality, therefore IMHO, also harkens to Snow White and even the more lustful fertility celebrations of the Beltane Fires.