Diana Bathing with her Nymphs with Actaeon and Callisto

Diana Bathing with her Nymphs with Actaeon and Callisto
Artist Rembrandt van Rijn
Year 1634
Medium Oil on canvas
Dimensions 168 cm × 93.5 cm (66 in × 36.8 in)
Location Wasserburg Anholt, Isselburg

Diana Bathing with her Nymphs with Actaeon and Callisto is a 1634 painting by the Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn. It is now on show in the Salm-Salm princely collection in the Wasserburg Anholt in Isselburg, Germany.

It shows two episodes from Ovid's Metamorphoses, in both of which someone is punished by the goddess Diana for a sexual offence. On the left, Actaeon is punished for seeing the goddess naked by being turned into a stag and killed by his own hounds. On the right, Diana's other nymphs are tearing off Callisto's clothing to reveal how she has broken her vow of chastity and is now carrying Jupiter's child - Diana expels her from her court and she later gives birth to Arcas before being turned into a bear by Juno, whom Arcas almost kills whilst hunting.

Unusually, the painting also includes an image of an elderly couple unrelated to either of the two stories (background) and a middle-aged nymph (in the foreground).

Bibliography

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