Diana and Callisto - en grisaille

We are grateful to Professor Roger Rearick for the attribution, given on the basis of a photograph. Either a bozzetto or an unfinished work, this picture relates closely to the figures of Diana and her nymphs in the Diana and Actaeon in the Art Institute of Chicago, traditionally regarded as the work of Jacopo, but regarded by Professor Rearick as the work of Gerolamo (see W.R. Rearick, 'The Life and works of Jacopo dal Ponte, called Bassano c. 1510-1592', catalogue of the exhibition, Jacopo Bassano, B.L. Brown and P. Marini eds., Museo Civico, Bassano del Grappa and Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, September 1992-April 1993, p. 165, n. 374)

The Chicago picture derives ultimately from the lost Death of Actaeon, formerly in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum, Berlin, that Rearick attributes to Leandro and Jacopo. Leandro in circa 1590 painted a variant of that work (formerly Neumann and Salzer, Vienna), in which the nymphs were brought forward, a variant that Gerolamo probably used as the basis for the Chicago picture. The figure of the seated nymph seen from behind is taken from the Jacopo's figure of Eve in the Terrestrial Paradise in the Doria Pamphilj Gallery, Rome.