Actaeon Transformed into a Stag

The Louvre owns two small paintings on copper by Albani with exactly the same title, Actaeon Transformed into a Stag. In the other one the hunter is already running away. Here he has not moved yet. Ovid tells how Actaeon, out hunting, stumbled on the goddess Diana bathing with her nymphs in a grotto. She threw water in his face, he began to turn into a stag, and his own hounds tore him apart.

Diana and the nymphs crowd under a rocky overhang, covering themselves, while Actaeon stands at the right, spear still in hand, with antlers already growing from his head.

The copper went through the royal collection at Versailles, and in 1760 and 1784 it was recorded in the Surintendance, the building that housed the office of the king's works. It was taken from Versailles to the Louvre in August 1797.