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    Diana and Callisto

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    Diana and Callisto
    Diana and Callisto
    Diana and Callisto
    Courtesy of National Museums Liverpool
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    Artist
    Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
    Title
    Diana and Callisto
    Date
    c.1755 (undated)
    Medium
    Oil on canvas
    Dimensions
    Metric: 103 x 139 cm
    Imperial: 40 5/8 x 54 3/4 in.
    Collection
    Lady Lever Art Gallery, National Museums Liverpool. To license images click here.
    Accession Number
    LL3122
    Wilson Online Reference
    P127C
    Description
    In the foreground, Diana points accusingly at Callisto, who is accompanied by two more nymphs, while others bathe in the lake below. The town of Nemi appears above the woods on the opposite shore, with Monte Calvarone beyond. There are birds silhouetted against the water.
    Exhibited
    Possibly London, SA 1761 (137) with 'its companion'; Society of British Artists (Suffolk Street) 1832 (34), lent by Lord Northwick; London 1925 (24); Manchester 1925 (55); Brussels 1929 (196); London, RA 1980 Lord Leverhulme (80)
    Provenance
    John Rushout, 2nd Lord Northwick (1769-1859), Thirlestaine House, Cheltenham; sold Phillips at Thirlestaine House, Cheltenham 26 July 1859 (1195 - Lake of Nemi, Speculum Dianae, 'the famous picture'); bt J. Daubeney, Alstone Lodge; W. Daubeney, sold Christie's 27 June 1881 (91), as Lake Nemi; James Orrock and Sir J.D. Linton sale, Christie's 25-27 April 1895 (322); bt James Orrock, sold Christie's 4 June 1904 (147); bt Smith; bt Lord Lever, November 1904
    Signature/inscription
    Signed on the stone below the rock lower right: RW [R reversed]
    Subject
    Callisto was a nymph seduced by Jupiter when disguised as Diana. The scene comes from Ovid's Metamorphoses lines 401-530 and especially 441-465, where the virgin huntress has just discovered her handmaiden's pregnancy and is banishing her. Callisto's child will be the forefather of the Arcadian people. Since ancient times Lake Nemi had been associated with the cult of the goddess. Virgil and other classical writers had described the smooth, rounded lake as the Speculum Dianae or Mirror of Diana and as such, it was frequently mentioned in eighteenth-century guide-books. The famous sanctuary of the goddess, the Grove of Diana, was on the northern shore of the lake, beneath the little town of Nemi (in Latin, Nemus Aricinum). These classical connotations of the lake are here strengthened by the introduction of Diana herself, chastising the errant nymph. Familiar to those with a classical education (as were most of Wilson's clients) by association with the goddess Diana, the landscape was one of the most celebrated beauty spots in central Italy.
    Related Prints
    E13 Joseph Wood after Wilson, The Lake of Nemi or Speculum Dianæ, The British Museum
    E82 Louis Marvy after Wilson, Lake Nemi or Speculum Dianæ, The British Museum
    Versions
    See 'Links' tab
    Related Paintings
    Pendant: P63A Classical Landscape with Diana and Actaeon, Collection of the Bermuda National Gallery and the Government of Bermuda
    Related Works by Other Artists
    Gaspard Dughet Ideal Landscape, Glasgow City Art Gallery and Museum
    Critical commentary
    The site had associations with Gaspard Dughet and the calm lucidity and order of the design consciously recall French classical landscapes of the 17th century by Dughet and Claude Lorrain. The handling is entirely characteristic of Wilson's work of the late 1750s.
    Previous Cat/Ref Nos
    Inventory number: WHL.641. Formerly H.35; Catalogue Number: Tatlock p. 68
    Bibliography
    Anonymous, Catalogue of Lord Northwick's Picture Galleries, 1858 (700); B. Webber, James Orrock, R.I., vol. 1, 1903, repr. opp. p. 134; R.R. Tatlock, R. Fry, R. L. Hobson, P. Macquoid & C.R. Grundy, A Record of the Collections in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight, Cheshire formed by the First Viscount Leverhulme, vol. I, 1928, p. 68, no.641; The Connoisseur, vol. 90, July 1932, p. 31, repr.; WGC, p. 164, under pls 23a & b, and 24a; Solkin 1981; J. Cornforth: 'Stourhead', Country Life, 8 September 1994; A. Kidson, Earlier British Paintings in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, National Museums & Galleries, Merseyside, 1999, pp. 176-78
    Location featured in work
    Lake Nemi, a volcanic lake in the Alban Hills about 15 miles south east of Rome.
    More Information
    This is the largest recorded version of the only known Wilson composition which depicts mythological figures within a specific topographical setting. It is likely to have been executed during his stay in Rome between 1752-57, though W.G. Constable dates it c.1765. At least by 1832 it was paired with P63A, an identically-sized version of Diana and Actaeon, a subject which Wilson had first painted in Rome c.1753-54.
    Condition/Conservation
    Kate Lowry has noted: Gilt compo frame, low-reflective glass. Viewed in the frame on display. Oil on canvas, relined. Pale pink brown ground or underpaint visible beneath distant landscape and around foliage of trees to right. Darker brown tone beneath trees at lower left. Flat white clouds in sky. Flecks of bright yellow on lower foliage, upper right and on grasses, lower left corner. Excellent quality Wilson. Figure group is reversed version of those that appear in P127.
    Updated by Compiler
    2021-05-26 00:00:00

    Work of Art

    Prints

    • Joseph Wood after Wilson, The Lake of Nemi or Speculum Dianæ, The British Museum
    • Joseph Wood after Wilson, The Lake of Nemi or Speculum Dianæ, Royal Academy of Arts, London
    • Joseph Wood after Wilson, The Lake of Nemi or Speculum Dianæ, National Museum Wales, Cardiff
    • Louis Marvy after Wilson, Lake Nemi or Speculum Dianæ, The British Museum

    Versions

    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) Diana and Callisto, Private Collection
    • Richard Wilson and Studio The Lake of Nemi or Speculum Dianae with Dolbadarn Castle (Diana and Callisto), Bristol City Museum and Gallery
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) The Lake of Nemi or Speculum Dianae (The Lake of Nemi with Diana and Callisto), The Trustees of Jane, Lucy and Charles Hoare, Stourhead, Wiltshire, National Trust

    Paintings

    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782), Classical Landscape with Diana and Actaeon, Collection of the Bermuda National Gallery and the Government of Bermuda (Pendant)

    Exhibitions

    • London, National Gallery, Millbank (Tate Gallery), 26 June - 30 September 1925
    • Manchester City Art Gallery, 22 October - 5 December 1925
    • Brussels, Musée Moderne, 12 October - 1 December 1929

    Documents

    • William George Constable, Richard Wilson
    • David Solkin, 'Richard Wilson's Variations on a Theme by Gaspard Dughet'
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