Diana Resting after her Bath
Franrois Boucher
1742 Oil on canvas, 56 x 73 cm

Diana and Actaeon
Giuseppe Cesari
1603-06 Oil on copper, 50 x 69 cm
Ovid tells how the young prince Actaeon, hunting in the forest, stumbled accidentally upon the grotto where Diana and her companion were bathing. To punish Actaeon for seeing Diana nude.
The Goddess Diana turned Actaeon into a stag. He was than chased and torn to pieces by his own hunting dogs.
The moral of the story may be that Actaeon now knows how his game feels as they are being hunted.

Diana's Return from the Hunt
1745. Franrois Boucher
Diana ( Greek name: Artemis ) The daughter of Zeus and Leto and the twin of the god Apollo. Diana was the virgin goddess of the childbirth and of wild animals.
Diana was the goddess of the hunt and chase. Diana carried a silver bow made by the Cyclopes.
Diana was often accompanied by maiden in her hunt, who tried to remain virgin like, Diana the goddess they worshiped.
However, many of the gods, especially Zeus, often ravished her beautiful companions.
Diana was the guardian of wild animals and the forest. Diana favored the bear, dog and boar. Diana's sacred trees are the laurel.

Diana and Callisto
Vecellio Tiziano, 1559
Oil on canvas, 187 x 205 cm
Callisto was one of Diana's best friends and one of the most beautiful mortal woman. Now Hear (Roman name Juno) knew her husband Zeus (Jupiter or Jove ) has seduces her.
So Hear said "I will take away that beauty with which you have captivated my husband." And Callisto fell to her hands and knees. Became covered with black hair, hands became claws, and served as feet her mouth became jaws, her voice, became a growl.

Now Zeus found out about it but could not un-do Hear's work. So Zeus places her (and his son by her) in the heavens as the Great and Little Bear.

Diana Returning from Hunt
Pieter Pauwel Rubens c. 1615

Diana and Actaeon
Vecellio Tiziano, 1559
An other picture of Actaeon stumbling on Diana and her nymphs nude while Diana was bathing. Later Actaeon was turned into a stag and killed by his own dogs and hunting party. A good excuse for artists to draw nude woman.

Diana and her Nymphs Surprised by the Fauns
Pieter Pauwel Rubens c. 1638-40
Oil on canvas, 128 x 314 cm
Fauns (also called Pan) Pan had the head and torso of a man, but the hindquarters and horns of a goat.
Pan was the son of Hermes, and the god of flocks and pastures. Pan was a horny devil and had lustful nature, always trying to seduce the Nymphs of the fields and trees, not always successfully. Also Pan often led the Nymphs in dance
Pan was a great musician with the shepherds pipes (Syrinx) which he invented. There was a nymph named Syrinx who was loved by the satyrs and spirits of the wood but remained a virgin and a faithful worshipper of Diana. One day, as Syrinx was returning from the chase, Pan met her, and tried to hit on her.
Syrinx ran away, without stopping to hear his compliments, he followed her until she came to the river bank.
Syrinx called for help from the water nymphs. Pan threw his arms around what he thought was the form of the nymph and found he embraced only a tuft of reeds! As he breathed a sigh, the air sounded through the reeds, and made a fine melody.
Pan was charmed with the with the sweetness of the music and novelty and took some of the reeds, and placing them together side by side, of different lengths, made an instrument which he called Syrinx, in honor of the nymph Syrinx.

Diana with Her Hunting Dogs beside Kill
Jan Fyt
Oil on canvas, 79 x 116 cm
Diana was the Goddess of game and hunting. The hunt thought a glorified aristocratic privilege of the Gods and heroes.