![Titian - Diana and Actaeon - Google Art Project](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/Titian_-_Diana_and_Actaeon_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg)
The myth of Diana and Actaeon can be found in Ovid’s ''
Metamorphoses
The ''Metamorphoses'' ( la, Metamorphōsēs, from grc, μεταμορφώσεις: "Transformations") is a Latin narrative poem from 8 CE by the Roman poet Ovid. It is considered his ''magnum opus''. The poem chronicles the history of the ...
''. The tale recounts the unfortunate fate of a young hunter named
Actaeon, who was a grandson of
Cadmus, and his encounter with chaste
Artemis
In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Artemis (; grc-gre, Ἄρτεμις) is the goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, nature, vegetation, childbirth, care of children, and chastity. She was heavily identified wit ...
, known to the Romans as
Diana, goddess of the hunt. The latter is nude and enjoying a bath in a spring with help from her escort of nymphs when the mortal man unwittingly stumbles upon the scene. The nymphs scream in surprise and attempt to cover Diana, who, in a fit of embarrassed fury, splashes water upon Actaeon. He is transformed into a deer with a dappled hide and long antlers, robbed of his ability to speak, and thereafter promptly flees in fear. It is not long, however, before his own hounds track him down and kill him, failing to recognize their master.
Art
![Jordaens Diana and Actaeon](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/Jordaens_Diana_and_Actaeon.jpg)
The story became very popular in the Renaissance. The most common scene shown was Actaeon surprising Diana, but his transformation and his death were also sometimes shown.
Titian
Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italian (Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, nea ...
painted the first two scenes in two of his greatest late ''poesies'' for
Philip II of Spain, in
''Diana and Actaeon'' and ''
The Death of Actaeon''. The latter actually shows the transformation still in progress; like many depictions the head is shown transformed, but most of the body remains human. Less often Actaeon is fully transformed when caught by his dogs. The story was popular on Italian Renaissance
maiolica
Maiolica is tin-glazed pottery decorated in colours on a white background. Italian maiolica dating from the Renaissance period is the most renowned. When depicting historical and mythical scenes, these works were known as ''istoriato'' wares ...
.
In
Matthew Barney
Matthew Barney (born March 25, 1967) is an American contemporary artist and film director who works in the fields of sculpture, film, photography and drawing. His works explore connections among geography, biology, geology and mythology as well ...
's 2019 movie ''
Redoubt
A redoubt (historically redout) is a fort or fort system usually consisting of an enclosed defensive emplacement outside a larger fort, usually relying on earthworks, although some are constructed of stone or brick. It is meant to protect soldi ...
'' set in the
Sawtooth Mountains of the U.S. state of
Idaho
Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyomi ...
and an accompanying traveling art exhibition originating at the
Yale University Art Gallery
The Yale University Art Gallery (YUAG) is the oldest university art museum in the Western Hemisphere. It houses a major encyclopedic collection of art in several interconnected buildings on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. ...
the myth is retold by the visual artist and filmmaker via avenues of his own design.
Diane and Actaeon's myth has also deeply inspired the French film/theatre director, writer and visual artist Jean Michel Bruyère and his collective LFKs, who produced a series of 600 shorts and "medium" films, an interactive 360° installation, ''Si poteris narrare licet'' ("if you are able to speak of it, then you may do so") in 2002, a 3D 360° installation ''La Dispersion du Fils'' (from 2008 to 2016) and an outdoor performance, ''Une Brutalité pastorale'' (2000) all about the myth of Diana and Actaeon.
Ballet
The origins of the ''Diana and Actaeon Pas de Deux,'' a ''divertissement'' created for a 1935 version of ''La Esmeralda,'' lie in two earlier ballet productions. The first of these was ''
Tsar Kandavl or Le Roi Candaule
''Le Roi Candaule'' ( en. ''King Candaules'') is a ''Grand ballet'' in four acts and six scenes, with choreography by Marius Petipa and music by Cesare Pugni. The libretto is by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and is based on the history of K ...
'', premiered in 1868 by the Imperial Russian Ballet in Saint Petersburg. Based on a story told by Herodotus in his ''Histories,'' this four-act ballet, choreographed by
Marius Petipa to music by
Cesare Pugni
Cesare Pugni (; russian: Цезарь Пуни, Cezar' Puni; 31 May 1802 in Genoa – ) was an Italian composer of ballet music, a pianist and a violinist. In his early career he composed operas, symphonies, and various other forms of orches ...
, included a ''
pas de trois
In ballet, ''pas de trois'' is a French term usually referring to a dance between three people. Typically, a ''pas de trois'' in ballet consists of five parts:
#Entrée (the opening number for the three dancers, usually preceded by a short i ...
'' for dancers portraying Diana, the Roman goddess of the moon, the hunt, and chastity; Endymion, a beautiful shepherd, and a Satyr. This ''divertissement'' told of a poetic encounter in which Diana (or Selene, another name for the moon goddess) looked down upon the sleeping youth, descended to earth, kissed him, and fell in love. In a production mounted in the early twentieth century, Anna Pavlova was among those who danced Diana, and
Vaslav Nijinsky
Vaslav (or Vatslav) Nijinsky (; rus, Вацлав Фомич Нижинский, Vatslav Fomich Nizhinsky, p=ˈvatsləf fɐˈmʲitɕ nʲɪˈʐɨnskʲɪj; pl, Wacław Niżyński, ; 12 March 1889/18908 April 1950) was a ballet dancer and choreog ...
appeared as the Satyr. In 1917,
George Balanchine, then Balanchivadze, also danced the role of the Satyr, with Lydia Ivanova as Diana and Nicholas Efimov as Endymion.
In 1886, Petipa incorporated a new ''
pas de deux,'' set to music by
Riccardo Drigo
Riccardo Eugenio Drigo ( ru. Риккардо Эудженьо Дриго) (30 June 18461 October 1930) was an Italian composer of ballet music and Italian opera, a theatrical conductor, and a pianist.
Drigo is most noted for his long career a ...
, into his production of Pugni's ''La Esmeralda'' for the Maryinsky Ballet, as the Imperial Russian Ballet had come to be called. This ''pas de deux'' was based on the Greek myth of Artemis (predecessor to the Roman Diana), in her aspect of virgin goddess of the hunt, and Actaeon, a Theban hero. According to Ovid's ''Metamorphoses,'' Actaeon, out on a hunt, stumbled upon Artemis while she was bathing at a spring. Outraged and embarrassed that he had seen her naked, she punished him by destroying his power of speech and turning him into a stag, with antlers and a shaggy coat. In deer form, he was torn to pieces by his own hunting dogs, whipped into a raging fury by Artemis.
In 1935,
Agrippina Vaganova
Agrippina Yakovlevna Vaganova (russian: Агриппина Яковлевна Ваганова; 26 June 1879 – 5 November 1951) was a Soviet and Russian ballet teacher who developed the Vaganova method – the technique which derived from the t ...
staged a new production of ''La Esmeralda'' for the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad, as the company and the city were then known. She created a new, bravura ''pas de deux'' for Diana and Actaeon, joining the names of the modest Roman goddess and the hapless Greek hunter. She included a few spectacular "stag leaps" for the male dancer, but she largely abandoned the well-known story of Actaeon in creating this ''divertissement'' and made instead a rapturous dance for two lovers, set to music by Pugni. Diana is seen as the beautiful goddess of the moon and the hunt, usually wearing a wispy red chiton and carrying a small golden bow; Actaeon is portrayed as a strong, handsome, mortal youth, clad in a short chiton or loincloth. At the premiere, Diana was danced by Galina Ulanova and Actaeon by Vaktang Chabukiani.
["Diana and Actaeon pas de deux," American Ballet Theater website, https://www.abt.org/ballet/diana-and-acteon/. Retrieved 10 October 2021.]
References
External links
{{Commons category, Diana and Actaeon
Greek mythology
Iconography
Paintings formerly in the Orleans Collection