Year 1634 Artist Rembrandt | Created 1634 | |
Dimensions 168 cm × 93.5 cm (66 in × 36.8 in) Similar Rembrandt artwork, Other artwork | ||
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).