Name of Object:

The Hunt of Diana

Location:

Rome, Latium, Italy

Holding Museum:

Borghese Gallery

 About Borghese Gallery, Rome

Original Owner:

Scipione Borghese

Current Owner:

Italian State

Date of Object:

1616–1617

Artist(s) / Craftsperson(s):

Domenico Zampieri, or Domenichino (1581, Bologna-1641, Naples)

Museum Inventory Number:

53

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Oil on canvas

Dimensions:

h: 225 cm; w: 320 cm

Provenance:

Borghese Collection

Type of object:

Painting

Description:

The work was commissioned from Domenichino by his patron, Cardinal Pietro Aldrobrandini. However, it came into the possession of Cardinal Scipione Borghese when he took it by force from the artist's study, depriving the original client, a nephew of Clement VIII (1592–1605), his traditional rival. The subject is inspired by a passage from Virgil's Aeneid (canto V) that describes the archery competition between Aeneas' friends: aiming at a dove tied to a post, the first archer hits the post; the second cuts the ribbon holding the bird; the third misses and the fourth shoots regardless to demonstrate his skill, and his arrow bursts into flames and ends up in the clouds. The sequence is transposed into the domain of nymph disciples of Diana, the goddess of hunting, an idyllic and luminous environment that represents the mythical Arcadia. The literary metaphors derive from the cultured Domenichino's involvement with G. B. Agucchi, secretary to the cardinal and adviser to the painter in the conception of the work.
In the representation of the nymphs' play, the painter is attempting to paint the poetic and chronological narration of the facts, lifting pictorial art above poetic art and, in general dissolving the limit traditionally placed on different art forms; a topic that was widely discussed in the Baroque period.
The pose and the expression of the “affections” (feelings) on the faces help to explain the succession of events, while the unbridled play is contained in a classical equilibrium. The nymph holding the greyhound shows us what will happen to the two male figures hidden amongst the bushes on the right-hand side of the canvas.
According to the myth, Diana's terrible rage was unleashed against the hunter Actaeon who, having seen her bathing, was turned into a stag and devoured by his own dogs. One of the nymphs immersed in the water, tender and sensual, gazes at the viewer and links the internal and external spaces of the painting; another attempt to overcome limitations, in this instance spatial, that is typical of Baroque art.

The canvas was painted for Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini, nephew of the preceding Pope Clement VIII, who had a strong dislike for the Borghese family. However, Cardinal Scipione wanted the painting for himself and had it forcibly removed from the artist's studio, imprisoning the artist for several days.
In this painting Domenichino synthesises the colour of Bolognese painting, Roman drawings and Leonardo's theories on aerial perspective.

How Object was obtained:

The Borghese Collection was acquired by the Italian State in 1902.

Selected bibliography:

Della Pergola, P., Galleria Borghese. I dipinti, I, Rome, 1955, n. 31, pp. 28–29.
Spear, R. E., Domenichino, New Haven–London, 1982, n. 52, pp. 192–194.
Herrmann Fiore, K., La Caccia di Diana. Della genesi del dipinto, della questione dell'antico e del colore in rapporto della teoria di padre Matteo Zaccolini in Domenichino, exhibition catalogue (Rome), Milan, 1996, pp. 240–252.
Kliemann, J., 'Domenichino Jagd der Diana in der Galleria Borghese', in Römisches Jahrbuch der Bibliotheca Hertziana, 31, 1996, pp. 272–311.
Tantillo, A. M., in L'idea del Bello, exhibition catalogue (Rome), Milan, 2000, n. 8, pp. 331–334.

Additional Copyright Information:

Copyright image: Archivio fotografico Soprintendenza Speciale PSAE e Polo Museale della Città di Roma.

Citation of this web page:

Sofia Barchiesi, Marina Minozzi "The Hunt of Diana" in "Discover Baroque Art", Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://baroqueart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;BAR;it;Mus11;19;en

Prepared by: Sofia BarchiesiSofia Barchiesi

SURNAME: Barchiesi
NAME: Sofia

TITLE: Author and Researcher

CV:
Sofia Barchiesi, a graduate and specialist in Art History and recipient of a scholarship from the School of Mediaeval and Modern Art History at Lumsa University, has been working with the Superintendency for Historical Artistic Heritage and the Museums of Rome since the late 1980s. She was responsible for cataloguing the art of the region and museums of Rome, studying the period of the Counter-Reformation particularly closely. She works with journals and writes essays, alternating her research and teaching work., Marina MinozziMarina Minozzi

SURNAME: Minozzi
NAME: Marina

AFFILIATION: Borghese Gallery, Rome

TITLE: Head Art History Co-ordinator

CV:
Marina Minozzi, a graduate and specialist in Art History, is currently the Head Art History Co-ordinator at the Borghese Gallery, where she curates the collections from the 18th and 19th centuries and heads the museum’s Documentation Centre. She has published a range of papers, including many on art-collecting in Rome and particularly the Borghese collection. She is currently involved with the Ten Great Exhibitions project underway at the Borghese Gallery, and has written essays on the work of Bernini, Raffaello, Canova and Correggio.
Translation by: Laurence Nunny
Translation copyedited by: Mandi GomezMandi Gomez

Amanda Gomez is a freelance copy-editor and proofreader working in London. She studied Art History and Literature at Essex University (1986–89) and received her MA (Area Studies Africa: Art, Literature, African Thought) from SOAS in 1990. She worked as an editorial assistant for the independent publisher Bellew Publishing (1991–94) and studied at Bookhouse and the London College of Printing on day release. She was publications officer at the Museum of London until 2000 and then took a role at Art Books International, where she worked on projects for independent publishers and arts institutions that included MWNF’s English-language editions of the books series Islamic Art in the Mediterranean. She was part of the editorial team for further MWNF iterations: Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean Virtual Museum and the illustrated volume Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean.

True to its ethos of connecting people through the arts, MWNF has provided Amanda with valuable opportunities for discovery and learning, increased her editorial experience, and connected her with publishers and institutions all over the world. More recently, the projects she has worked on include MWNF’s Sharing History Virtual Museum and Exhibition series, Vitra Design Museum’s Victor Papanek and Objects of Desire, and Haus der Kulturen der Welt’s online publication 2 or 3 Tigers and its volume Race, Nation, Class.

MWNF Working Number: IT1 23