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| Jupiter, in the Guise of Diana, and Callisto |
Artist:François Boucher (French, Paris 1703–1770 Paris)
Date:1763
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:Oval, 25 1/2 x 21 5/8 in. (64.8 x 54.9 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:The Jack and Belle Linsky Collection, 1982
Catalogue Entry
In 1765, two years after these pictures were painted, they were presented at the Paris Salon as a loan from the fermier général Bergeret de Grancourt and titled Jupiter transformé en Diane pour surprendre Calisto and Angélique & Médor. Both are signed and one is dated. They share a distinguished history, having belonged also to Sir Richard Wallace. It is evident that the paintings were planned as a pair and they are complementary, in the opposing gestures of Diana and Medoro, in the repetition of the leopard skins and quivers of arrows and of the putti with firebrands, and in the arrangement of the sheltering trunks and branches of the trees in the background. Complex, elaborate compositions of the kind must have come naturally to Boucher, the sixty year old king’s painter and director of the Académie Royale.
Boucher favored pastoral and mythological themes and painted Diana and Callisto on a number of occasions. As related by Ovid in his Metamorphoses, the God Jupiter (who is symbolically present in the form of an eagle) transformed himself into the goddess Diana (identified by the small crescent moon on her forehead) in order to seduce Diana’s maiden follower Callisto. Jupiter/Diana, here embracing the beautiful young blond nymph, left her with child. When Callisto gave birth to the boy Arcas, the angry goddess Juno transformed her into a she-bear. Jupiter, to protect them, later removed them to the heavens as neighboring constellations. Among other versions of the subject is a picture belonging to the Wallace Collection, London.
Katharine Baetjer 2014
Copyright Image
https://images.metmuseum.org
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