''Diana and Actaeon'' is a painting by the

Italian Renaissance The Italian Renaissance ( it, Rinascimento ) was a period in Italian history covering the 15th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Europe and marked the trans ...

master

Titian Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italian (Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, nea ...

, finished in 1556–1559, and is considered amongst Titian's greatest works. It portrays the moment in which the hunter Actaeon bursts in where the goddess Diana and her nymphs 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 National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director ...

). Diana is the woman on the right side of the painting. She is wearing a crown with a crescent moon on it and is being covered by the dark skinned woman 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'' will remain on display in the UK, and will alternate between the two galleries on five-year terms.

To 2005

''Diana and Actaeon'' is part of a series of seven famous canvases, the "poesies", depicting mythological scenes from

Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...

's ''

Metamorphoses The ''Metamorphoses'' ( la, Metamorphōsēs, from grc, μεταμορφώσεις: "Transformations") is a Latin narrative poem from 8 CE by the Roman poet Ovid. It is considered his ''magnum opus''. The poem chronicles the history of the ...

'' painted for Philip II of Spain (after

Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II (31 July 1527 – 12 October 1576) was Holy Roman Emperor from 1564 until his death in 1576. A member of the Austrian House of Habsburg, he was crowned King of Bohemia in Prague on 14 May 1562 and elected King of Germany (Kin ...

had declined Titian's offer to paint them for him). The work remained in the

Spanish royal collection The Spanish royal collection of art was almost entirely built up by the monarchs of the Habsburg family who ruled Spain from 1516 to 1700, and then the Bourbons (1700–1868, with a brief interruption). They included a number of kings with a seri ...

until 1704, when King Philip V gave it to the French ambassador. It was soon acquired by

Philippe II, Duke of Orléans Philippe II, Duke of Orléans (Philippe Charles; 2 August 1674 – 2 December 1723), was a French prince, soldier, and statesman who served as Regent of the Kingdom of France from 1715 to 1723. He is referred to in French as ''le Régent''. ...

, nephew of

Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Ver ...

, and Regent of France during the minority of

Louis XV Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached ...

, for his collection, one of the finest ever assembled. After the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...

, the

Orleans collection The Orleans Collection was a very important collection of over 500 paintings formed by Philippe d'Orléans, Duke of Orléans, mostly acquired between about 1700 and his death in 1723. Apart from the great royal-become-national collections of Euro ...

was sold to a

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

dealer by Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans in 1791, two years before he was guillotined. This dealer then exhibited many pictures from the collection (including the Titians) in London. The largest share of the collection was thus bought in 1798 by the coal-magnate

Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater (21 May 1736 – 8 March 1803), known as Lord Francis Egerton until 1748, was a British nobleman from the Egerton family. He was the youngest son of the 1st Duke. He did not marry, and the dukedom expire ...

, including this painting, Titian's '' Diana and Callisto'' (from the same mythological series of seven paintings), eight paintings by

Poussin Nicolas Poussin (, , ; June 1594 – 19 November 1665) was the leading painter of the classical French Baroque style, although he spent most of his working life in Rome. Most of his works were on religious and mythological subjects painted for ...

, three

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual a ...

s and Rembrandt's ''Self-Portrait, aged 51''. The third Duke of Bridgewater was probably inspired to buy the paintings by his nephew, Earl Gower, the ancestor of the Dukes of Sutherland. Certainly, on Bridgewater's death five years after the purchase, he bequeathed the Titians and the rest of the collection to Gower, who put it on display to the public in his London house – it has been on public display ever since. On first seeing the collection there,

William Hazlitt William Hazlitt (10 April 177818 September 1830) was an English essayist, drama and literary critic, painter, social commentator, and philosopher. He is now considered one of the greatest critics and essayists in the history of the English lan ...

wrote "I was staggered when I saw the works ... A new sense came upon me, a new heaven and a new Earth stood before me.". On the outbreak of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

in September 1939, the collection was moved from London to

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. Between 1945 and 2009, the ''Diana and Actaeon'' and ''Diana and Callisto'' (with other paintings from the collection, known collectively as "the Bridgewater loan" or "the Sutherland Loan") were on long-term display at the National Gallery of Scotland, in Edinburgh. As well as Hazlitt, during their time on public display they have inspired artists such as J. M. W. Turner and

Lucian Freud Lucian Michael Freud (; 8 December 1922 – 20 July 2011) was a British painter and draughtsman, specialising in figurative art, and is known as one of the foremost 20th-century English portraitists. He was born in Berlin, the son of Jewis ...

— Freud described the pair as "simply the most beautiful pictures in the world".

2008–present

The Sutherland collection has passed by descent to the 7th Duke of Sutherland, (most of whose wealth is contained in the paintings collection), but in late August 2008 the 7th Duke announced that he wished to sell some of the collection in order to diversify his assets. He had offered them as a pair to the British national galleries at £100 million (a third of their overall estimated market price) if they could demonstrate, by the end of 2008, the ability to raise that sum — if not, the pair or other paintings from the Bridgewater collection would be put on public

auction An auction is usually a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from the lowest bidder. Some exceptions to this definition ex ...

early in 2009. Within days of the Duke's decision, the NGS and the

, London had announced they would combine forces to raise the sum, initially in the form of £50 million (or a demonstration that this money could be raised) to purchase ''Diana and Actaeon'' and paid over three years in instalments and then £50 million for ''Diana and Callisto'' paid for similarly from 2013. Though the campaign received some criticism for the Duke's motives or (from

John Tusa Sir John Tusa (born 2 March 1936) is a British arts administrator, and radio and television journalist. He is co-chairman of the European Union Youth Orchestra from 2014. chairman, British Architecture Trust Board, RIBA, from 2014. From 1980 to ...

and Nigel Carrington of the University of the Arts London) for distracting from funding art students, it gained press support from both the tabloid and broadsheet print media in the UK – imitative nude

photoshoot A photo shoot is the process taken by creatives and models that results in a visual objective being obtained. An example is a model posing for a photographer at a studio or an outdoor location. A photo shoot is a series of images that are taken ...

s of it were featured in both '' The Sun'' (using the newspaper's ''

Page 3 Page 3, or Page Three, was a British newspaper convention of publishing a large image of a topless female glamour model (known as a Page 3 girl) on the third page of mainstream red-top tabloids. '' The Sun'' introduced the feature, publishi ...

'' models

photoshop Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor developed and published by Adobe Inc. for Windows and macOS. It was originally created in 1988 by Thomas and John Knoll. Since then, the software has become the industry standard not only in raster ...

ped onto the painting) and '' The Mirror'' (including the actor

Kim Cattrall Kim Victoria Cattrall (; born 21 August 1956) is a British-Canadian actress. She is known for her role as Samantha Jones on HBO's ''Sex and the City'' (1998–2004), for which she received five Emmy Award nominations and four Golden Globe Awa ...

and featured in a piece by

Andrew Graham-Dixon Andrew Michael Graham-Dixon (born 26 December 1960) is a British art historian and broadcaster. Life and career Early life and education Andrew Graham-Dixon is a son of the barrister Anthony Philip Graham-Dixon (1929–2012), Q.C., and ...

on ''

The Culture Show ''The Culture Show'' is a British magazine programme about books, art, film, architecture, music, visual fashion and the performing arts. The show was broadcast weekly on BBC Two between 2004 and 2015. Early history Launched in November 2004, t ...

''). On 14 October 2008 the appeal received £1 million from the Art Fund and on 19 November this was followed by £10 million from the

National Heritage Memorial Fund The National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) was set up in 1980 to save the most outstanding parts of the British national heritage, in memory of those who have given their lives for the UK. It replaced the National Land Fund which had fulfilled the ...

. From 22 October to 14 December 2008 it was put on display in Room 1 of the

in London to aid the public appeal – the only other painting in this temporary exhibition was the related '' The Death of Actaeon'' from the London National Gallery's collection, and they were illustrated by the relevant passages from Book 3 of

's ''

'' in the

John Dryden '' John Dryden (; – ) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate. He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the per ...

translation. Speculation began when the original 31 December deadline passed without definite news and the Scottish Government's announcement of a contribution of £17.5 million in January 2009 triggered a political row, with Ian Davidson questioning the deal at a time of economic hardship. There was also controversy over attempts to dilute the guarantee that the duke would sell no other of the paintings from the Sutherland Loan should the two Titians be bought. However, on 2 February 2009 it was announced that, thanks to the deadline being extended to raise more funds and finalise the payment plan for ''Diana and Callisto'', the £50 million had been raised and ''Diana and Actaeon'' would be acquired. The final sum was made up of £12.5 million from the Scottish Government, £7.4 million from public donations, £12.5 million from the National Galleries in London, £10 million from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, £2 million from the Monument Trust, £4.6 million from the National Galleries of Scotland and £1 million was secured from the Art Fund. ''Diana and Actaeon'' will thus be displayed in Scotland for five years, then in London alongside ''The Death of Actaeon'' for five years, on an alternating basis.

Titian's ''poesie'' series for Philip II

* ''Danaë'', delivered to Philip 1553, now Wellington Collection, with earlier and later versions. * '' Venus and Adonis'', Museo del Prado, delivered 1554, and several other versions * '' The Rape of Europa'', c. 1560–62, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum * ''Diana and Actaeon'', 1556–59, owned jointly by London's

and the

National Gallery of Scotland The Scottish National Gallery (formerly the National Gallery of Scotland) is the national art gallery of Scotland. It is located on The Mound in central Edinburgh, close to Princes Street. The building was designed in a neoclassical style by W ...

in Edinburgh * '' Diana and Callisto'', 1556–59, owned jointly by London's

and the

in Edinburgh * '' Perseus and Andromeda'',

Wallace Collection The Wallace Collection is a museum in London occupying Hertford House in Manchester Square, the former townhouse of the Seymour family, Marquesses of Hertford. It is named after Sir Richard Wallace, who built the extensive collection, along ...

, c. 1553–62 * '' The Death of Actaeon'',

, never delivered and not always counted in the series, c. 1559 onwards File:Tizian - Danae receiving the Golden Rain - Prado.jpg, ''Danaë'' File:Venus and Adonis by Titian.jpg, '' Venus and Adonis'' File:Titian - Diana and Actaeon - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Diana and Actaeon'' File:TitianDianaCallistoEdinburgh.jpg, '' Diana and Callisto'' File:Perseo y Andrómeda, por Tiziano.jpg, '' Perseus and Andromeda'' File:Tizian 085.jpg, '' The Rape of Europa'' File:Titian - The Death of Actaeon - Google Art Project.jpg, '' The Death of Actaeon''

Notes

References

*Brigstocke, Hugh; ''Italian and Spanish Paintings in the National Gallery of Scotland'', 2nd Edn, 1993, National Galleries of Scotland,

External links