Diana and Actaeon
Titian, 1557
Diana and Actaeon is a large oil on canvas that Titian painted around 1556–1559, and it is generally regarded as one of his greatest works. It shows the moment when the hunter Actaeon, by chance, comes upon the place where Diana and her nymphs are bathing. In Ovid's Metamorphoses, which is the source of the story, the goddess is outraged at being seen naked by a man and turns the young hunter into a stag, which his own hounds then pursue and kill. Titian returned to that ending in a separate picture, The Death of Actaeon, now in the National Gallery in London.
The setting is unusual. Earlier tradition usually placed the episode in a forest with few built elements, whereas here Titian moves it to the arched ruins of a temple that blends features of a Gothic cathedral with rusticated stonework. This mix of nature and architecture echoes Ovid's idea of a nature that imitates art. Other details foreshadow the tragic outcome: a stag's skull perched on a column within Actaeon's line of sight, and deer pelts hanging from the branches.
At the centre, the nymphs react in different ways, startled and hurrying to cover themselves, while Diana, on the right, turns her body away in a gesture of modesty. A dark-skinned attendant shields her with cloth, and a small dog barks at the intruder at her feet. The crescent-moon crown identifies the goddess.
The painting belonged to a series of seven mythological canvases that Titian made for Philip II of Spain. After passing through several collections, including that of the Dukes of Sutherland, it was acquired in 2009 by the National Galleries of Scotland and the National Gallery, London, which display it in alternating periods. Its appeal lies in the combination of narrative, architectural setting, and mastery of colour and the rendering of the nude.
- Painter
- Titian
- Date
- 1557
- Medium
- oil paint, canvas
- Dimensions
- 184 × 202 cm
- Museum
- National Galleries Scotland, City of Edinburgh
- Genre
- mythological painting
- Depicts
- Diana, Actaeon, Diana and Actaeon
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