Mythological Allegory

When the Borghese household listed this canvas in the early 17th century, the clerk wrote down what he saw, a Venus with two women. It has long been known instead as Diana and Callisto, after the goddess and the nymph she banished. Pandora and the nymph Syrinx have been proposed too, and more recently Venus coming upon the beauty of Psyche, the mortal girl the goddess envied. The gallery now leans toward a story of Psyche and uses a neutral title. Once thought a joint work with his brother Battista, the picture is now given largely to Dosso. A young woman crowned with leaves sleeps by the water, an old woman at her side looks up, and a third figure, in green, points at the sky. Behind them a river valley opens toward a hill town, a wide view the gallery links to Flemish painters such as Patinir.