Diana and Actaeon

The subject of the picture is taken from Ovid's Metamorphosis (3:138-253) and tells the story of prince Actaeon who while hunting stumbled across Diana, the virgin huntress, and her nymphs bathing in a wooded grotto. In revenge for this, Diana turned Actaeon into a stag, whereupon he was hunted down and killed by his own hounds. The finely sculpted frame refects this celebrated story and comprises a festive flower garland that wreaths a deer's head. A water element trophy comprising of shells or fruits-of-the-sea is incorporated at the base. This virtuoso piece of carving reflects the style associated with the Amsterdam workshops of the Rome-trained Quellinus family of sculptors and their celebrated pupil Grinling Gibbons (d. 1721), 'Master carver in Wood' to Charles II. A related limewood frame, incorporating a portrait by Gerard Dou, was listed in the 1677 inventory of Ham House, Surrey (P. Thornton, 'The Furnishing and Decoration of Ham House', Furniture History, 1989, p. 148, fig. 129).