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Titian, Diana and Actaeon

Key facts
Full title Diana and Actaeon
Artist Titian
Artist dates active about 1506; died 1576
Date made 1556-9
Medium and support Oil on canvas
Dimensions 184.5 × 202.2 cm
Acquisition credit Bought jointly by the National Gallery and National Galleries of Scotland with contributions from the Scottish Government, the National Heritage Memorial Fund, The Monument Trust, Art Fund (with a contribution from the Wolfson Foundation), Artemis Investment Management Ltd, Binks Trust, Mr Busson on behalf of the EIM Group, Dunard Fund, The Fuserna Foundation, Gordon Getty, The Hintze Family Charitable Foundation, J Paul Getty Jnr Charitable Trust, John Dodd, Northwood Charitable Trust, The Rothschild Foundation, Sir Siegmund Warburg's Voluntary Settlement and through public appeal, 2009
Inventory number NG6611
Location Room 29
Collection Main Collection
Previous owners
George Granville Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 2nd Duke of Sutherland
Diana and Actaeon
Titian

While out hunting, Actaeon accidentally happens upon the secret bathing place of Diana, chaste goddess of the hunt. Titian explores the dramatic impact of his intrusion through a dynamic arrangement of figures, sparkling light, intense colour and animated brushwork.

Actaeon's fate is foretold by the stag's skull on the plinth and the skins of Diana's former prey hanging above her head. The conclusion of the story is shown in the National Gallery's painting The Death of Actaeon. The outraged goddess immediately avenges herself by transforming Actaeon into a stag to be devoured by his own hounds.

These pictures are part of a series of famous mythological paintings by Titian. They were painted for King Philip II of Spain when the artist was at the height of his powers. The subjects were based on the Roman poet Ovid's Metamorphoses – Titian himself referred to them as 'poesie' (poems).

Curator's insight

Carol Plazzotta explores 'Diana and Actaeon'
1 min 58 secs

Miranda Hinkley (in the studio): Hello. I’m Miranda Hinkley and this is the National Gallery Podcast.

Leah Kharibian: Well, Carol, this is a real treat, isn’t it. It’s really lovely to see so many people here, but being in front of ‘Diana and Actaeon’ and seeing it in the flesh, one’s really immediately impressed by the sheer scale of the ambition that Titian has here.

Carol Plazzotta: It truly is an extraordinary work.

Leah Kharibian: And can you tell us the story, because people might not be familiar with ‘Diana and Actaeon’ – what’s going on here?

Carol Plazzotta: The story is taken from the Roman poet Ovid and it is a moment of intense drama and pathos. It shows a beautiful young man, Actaeon, a hunter, who’s become separated from his friends at the end of a day’s hunting and he happens upon Diana, the chaste goddess of the hunt, bathing with her voluptuous nymphs.

Leah Kharibian: Now which one is Diana?

Carol Plazzotta: Diana is the one seated on the right. The beautiful, quite plump, goddess, and she’s staring across at Actaeon with this extraordinary haughty, proud glare, because he has caught her in a very awkward position, because she’s in a state of complete undress.

Miranda Hinkley (in the studio): If you're in London this month, why not pop in? And if you can't make it here in person, don't forget you can still enjoy the paintings online at www.nationalgallery.org.uk.

More from the National Gallery Podcast


Image above: © The National Gallery London / The National Galleries of Scotland

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More paintings by Titian

(Showing 6 of 19 works)
An Allegory of Prudence
An Allegory of Prudence
Titian
Three male heads at different stages of life are paired with the heads of three animals: a wolf, a lion and a dog. The Latin inscription divided to correspond to the three heads translates as: ‘Learning from Yesterday, Today acts prudently lest by his action he spoil Tomorrow.’ The meaning and pu...
Not on display
Bacchus and Ariadne
Bacchus and Ariadne
Titian
One of the most famous paintings in the National Gallery, Titian’s Bacchus and Ariadne illustrates a story told by the classical authors Ovid and Catullus. The Cretan princess Ariadne has been abandoned on the Greek island of Naxos by Theseus, whose ship sails away in the distance. Bacchus, god o...
Room 29
Diana and Callisto
Diana and Callisto
Titian
Room 29
Noli me Tangere
Noli me Tangere
Titian
Risen from the dead, Christ appears to his grieving follower, Mary Magdalene, in the Garden of Gethsemane. At first she mistakes him for a gardener but then reaches out her hand in wonder. Christ says, ‘Do not touch me’ (in Latin, noli me tangere); it is time for his followers to let go of his ea...
Room 29
Portrait of a Lady ('La Schiavona')
Portrait of a Lady ('La Schiavona')
Titian
Titian painted this picture when he was in his early twenties, at a time when private portraits of individual women were still rare. We don‘t know the identity of the sitter, if indeed this is a portrait in the traditional sense, rather than a general picture of a woman designed to encourage such...
On display elsewhere
Portrait of a Young Man
Portrait of a Young Man
Titian
Room 12
Portrait of Gerolamo (?) Barbarigo
Portrait of Gerolamo (?) Barbarigo
Titian
In this, one of Titian’s earliest portraits, the sitter turns to look at us over his shoulder and momentarily meets our gaze. Our attention is focused on the raised brow above his right eye, which is positioned midway across the picture. The man’s elbow rests on a parapet and his voluminous quilt...
Room 12
Portrait of Girolamo Fracastoro
Portrait of Girolamo Fracastoro
Titian
Girolamo Fracastoro (1476/8–1553), a celebrated medical doctor, as well as an astronomer, mathematician and poet, proposed the theory of contagion and in 1530 wrote an epic poem that gave the name ’syphilis' to the virulent, sexually transmitted disease that was ravaging Italy in that period.Alth...
Not on display
The Aldobrandini Madonna
The Aldobrandini Madonna
Titian
The Virgin and Child are accompanied by the young Saint John the Baptist and a kneeling woman, who cannot be clearly identified. She holds the infant Christ in her arms and gazes at him in adoration.It is not clear which, if any, New Testament episode is shown here. The shepherd and herdsman in t...
Room 9
The Death of Actaeon
The Death of Actaeon
Titian
Room 29
The Holy Family with a Shepherd
The Holy Family with a Shepherd
Titian
This is one of Titian’s earliest surviving works. It shows the Adoration of the Shepherds – the flying angel in the distance announces Christ’s birth to them. Saint Joseph presents the infant Christ to a young shepherd, who kneels in reverence.It is unusual to find only one shepherd in attendance...
Room 9
The Tribute Money
The Tribute Money
Titian
The Pharisees (chief priests) ask Christ whether it is right to pay tax to the Romans, who rule Palestine. Christ, sensing a trap, asks whose likeness and name are on the coinage: ‘They say unto him, Caesar’s. Then he saith unto them, render therefore unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and...
Room 29
The Vendramin Family
The Vendramin Family
Titian
This is Titian’s largest group portrait. The man in a red robe is probably Gabriel Vendramin (1484–1552). The man holding the altar may be Gabriel’s brother, Andrea Vendramin (1481–1547), and the boys are his seven sons. On the altar is a reliquary of the True Cross that their great-great-grandfa...
Room 9
The Virgin suckling the Infant Christ
The Virgin suckling the Infant Christ
Titian
The Virgin Mary gazes at the infant Christ who feeds from her breast. The naked child is encircled in his mother’s arms and twists away from us. Our eye is drawn from the Virgin’s delicate fingers, up the line of Christ’s back and to the expression of devotion on her face.Titian appears to be cit...
Not on display
A Boy with a Bird
A Boy with a Bird
Titian or Titian workshop
The infant cradling a dove to his cheek closely resembles Cupid in two versions of Titian’s Venus and Adonis, dating to around 1560, in Washington and New York. Yet the way in which the picture is painted and the range of colours used are characteristic of Titian’s work of the 1520s.This apparent...
Not on display
The Music Lesson
The Music Lesson
Possibly by Titian
A boy sings from a partbook while his music master beats time with his finger and perhaps sings along. A woman leans her arm against the teacher’s shoulder, her head tilted with a faraway look as if she is listening to the music. A youth accompanies the boy on a viol da gamba, while a young man b...
Not on display
Mythological Scene
Mythological Scene
Follower of Titian
Reminiscent of Titian’s style, this painting is typical of the kind of mythological scene made for learned, private patrons in Venice that he helped pioneer. Cupid, god of love, raises his arrow to pierce a woman embracing a youth who holds a golden apple.The central couple may be Hippomenes and...
Not on display
Venus and Adonis
Venus and Adonis
Workshop of Titian
Not on display
The Trinity ('La Gloria')
The Trinity ('La Gloria')
After Titian
This is a copy of Titian’s large canvas known as ‘La Gloria’ (The Glory) or The Trinity. Titian’s painting was commissioned by Emperor Charles V of Spain in 1551, and is now in the Prado, Madrid.The Emperor and Empress with their son Prince Philip and his sisters kneel in their burial shrouds bef...
Not on display
You've viewed 6 of 19 paintings