Diana and Actaeon (Titian)
Titian · c. 1557
The story
Diana and Actaeon is a large painting by the Italian Renaissance painter Titian, finished in 1556–1559, and is considered amongst Titian's greatest works. It portrays the moment in which the hunter Actaeon comes across the goddess Diana and her nymphs as they are bathing. Diana is furious, and will turn Actaeon into a stag, who is then pursued and killed by his own hounds, a scene Titian later painted in his The Death of Actaeon (National Gallery).
The story is typically located in woodland with very few structures aside from small works like walls and fountains. Titian adjusts this traditional setting by placing his characters in the arched stone ruins of a forest temple. Diana is the pale woman second from the right. She is wearing a crown with a crescent moon on it and is being covered by the dark skinned woman at the extreme right who may be her servant. The nymphs display a variety of reactions, and a variety of nude poses.
In 2008–2009, the National Gallery, London and National Galleries of Scotland successfully campaigned to acquire the painting from the Bridgewater Collection for £50 million. As a result, Diana and Actaeon, along with its pair Diana and Callisto, will remain on display in the UK, and will alternate between the two galleries on five-year terms. In late 2024 the painting was on display in Room 29 of the National Gallery in London.
Diana and Actaeon is the fourth of seven paintings made by Titian for Phillip II as a part of his poesie series and was painted at the same time and using the same style as the fifth painting in the series Diana and Callisto.
- Artist
- Titian
- Date
- c. 1557
- Collection
- National Gallery, London, United Kingdom
- Medium
- oil paint, canvas
- Size
- 184.5 × 202.2 cm
Story adapted from the Wikipedia article and its contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Facts from Wikidata (CC0). Image: Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.
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