Diana and Actaeon

Around 1600 Giuseppe Cesari, the Cavalier d'Arpino, was one of the most sought-after painters in Rome, and a composition that pleased collectors rarely stayed a single picture. He painted this scene from Ovid, the huntsman Actaeon stumbling on the goddess Diana and her nymphs at their bath, at least twice. One version, now in the Louvre, dates to around 1600 or 1601, when he was in Paris. A second, close to it, is in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest. This small canvas, made by his younger brother Bernardino sometime before 1613, repeats the Hungarian picture almost figure for figure. The two originals differ in one detail, which can be checked right here. In the Louvre painting Actaeon carries a lance, in the Budapest one his hands are empty, and so they are on this canvas as the nymphs scramble for cover.