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Diana and Actaeon
Jacopo Bassano (Italian, c. 1510-1592)
1585–92
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- 63.6 × 68.7 cm (25 × 27 in.); Framed: 82.6 × 88.3 × 10.2 cm (32 1/2 × 34 3/4 × 4 in.)
- Culture
- Italy
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Credit line
- Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester Collection
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Adult profiles and older: its museum's description or title mentions nudity. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
According to Roman myth, Actaeon, a mortal youth, was out hunting when he came upon Diana, the goddess of the moon and the hunt, bathing with her nymphs in a secret grotto. To punish him for his intrusion, Diana transformed Actaeon into a stag, and he was subsequently killed by his own hounds. With its poetic, silvery light and broken, dabbed brushstrokes, this small painting is a rare example of Jacopo Bassano’s hand at the end of his career. Working in the small town of Bassano del Grappa, Jacopo was one of the most influential painters in Venice and the surrounding region. His four sons carried his lively, colorful, and naturalistic style forward into the 17th century.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
