Diana and Callisto

The primary version of this composition - a picture that is signed and dated 1727 - was in England before July 1748, and it remains in a British private collection to this day (see Bailey, op. cit., no. 24). The present painting is the finest of several variants of the composition, but its status has been disputed. Both Bordeaux and Bailey (op. cit.) have published the painting as a studio copy, though it is well known that Lemoyne regularly made replicas of his most successful pictures, with varying degrees of workshop assistance (for example, versions are known of Hercules and Omphale, Narcissus, The Bather, and The Hunting Breakfast).

Though Bordeaux continues to affirm his belief that it is entirely a workshop production, Colin Bailey (who has studied the painting in a transparency) believes that it reveals considerable intervention from Lemoyne himself, especially in the finely rendered principal figures. More firmly modeled than the original - which is notable for its delicate, feathery brushwork - the present painting nevertheless reproduces its Venetian coloring and sensuous forms with a skill that, in key areas, suggests the hand of the master.

A version of the picture belonged to the Prince de Conti until 1777 (it measured 26 x 33 pouces); the original was engraved in England by William Walker in 1767.

We are grateful to Colin B. Bailey and Jean-Luc Bordeaux for their assistance in cataloguing this lot.