Jan Brueghel the Elder and Hendrik van Balen
Diana and Aktaeon um 1610Private collection, Austria>The copper tablet takes up one of the most popular episodes of ancient mythology. After Ovid's «Metamorphoses» (3, 131ff.), the hunter Aktaeon accidentally encounters the goddess Diana on the hunt, who, with her nymphs, gives herself to the bath at a spring. Angry about the uninvited witness, Diana wets him with spring water and thus causes his transformation into a deer, which is finally placed by his own dogs. The representation is dedicated to the moment in which the metamorphosis of actaeons begins. The hunter appears in the background on a clearing that opens in the otherwise dark forest landscape. The picture center occupies the brightly illuminated figure of Diana, around which the nymphs group, partly standing in shallow water, partly sitting on the shore. Some of them turn to the hunter and follow his transformation. The artists thus capture the moment immediately before the catastrophe. The naked bodies, covered only by colorful cloths, with their red, pink, blue and yellow tones, are effectively separated from the dark green of the forest.
The enclosed report confirms the painting, which was created around 1610, as a joint work by Hendrick van Balen and Jan Brueghel d.E., and pays tribute to the excellent fine painting of the plaque. Here, the mastery of the van Balen, specialized in figures and nudes, combines with the joy of detail Jan Brueghels the Elder, who frames and completes the story through his forest landscape. The collaboration of both artists is already verifiable around 1600 and lasted until Brueghel's death in 1625. Her success is shown not least by the fact that they repeatedly implemented the theme of Diana and Aktaeon together (cf. Ertz/Nitze-Ertz, Jan Brueghel the Elder, Volume II, Lingen 2008-10, p. 738f., Kat. 361 with fig.; 741, Cat. 363 with fig.; 742, Cat. 364 with fig.).
Experts by Dr. Klaus Ertz, Lingen, 6. ==References== This painting has been included in the catalogue of works. E. and Hendrik van Balen
Diana and Aktaeon
c. 1610
oil on copper on wood; framed
11 x 15.5 cm>Certificate by Dr. Klaus Ertz, Lingen, 6 July 2022, is closed. This painting has been included in the catalogue raisonné.
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