| The Death of Actaeon | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Titian |
| Year | c. 1559–1575 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 178.4 cm × 198.1 cm (70.2 in × 78.0 in) |
| Location | National Gallery,London |
The Death of Actaeon is a late work by theItalian Renaissance painterTitian, painted in oil on canvas from about 1559 to his death in 1576 and now in theNational Gallery in London. It is very probably one of the two paintings the artist stated he had started and hoped to finish (one of which he calls "Actaeon mauled byhounds") in a letter to their commissionerPhilip II of Spain during June 1559. However, most of Titian's work on this painting possibly dates to the late 1560s, but with touches from the 1570s. Titian seems never to have resolved it to his satisfaction, and the painting apparently remained in his studio until his death in 1576.[1] There has been considerable debate as to whether it is finished or not, as with other very late Titians, such as theFlaying of Marsyas, which unlike this has a signature, perhaps an indication of completion.[2]
It is a sequel of Titian's workDiana and Actaeon showing the story's tragic conclusion, which approximately follows the Roman poetOvid's account in theMetamorphoses: after Actaeon surprised the goddessDiana bathing naked in the woods, she transformed him into a stag and he was attacked and killed by his own hounds.[3]
Both paintings belong to a group of large-scale mythological paintings inspired by theMetamorphoses and referred to by Titian himself as ‘poesie’, the visual equivalent of poetry, which he began producing for Philip II of Spain in 1551[4] and which also includeDanaë (many versions, the original, the first for Philip is inApsley House,London, afterJoseph Bonaparte took it away when he leftSpain. A later copy of Titian himself, perhaps the most sensual of all is in thePrado,Madrid),Venus and Adonis (original in thePrado,Madrid, but also other versions),Perseus and Andromeda (Wallace Collection, London),The Rape of Europa (Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum,Boston),Diana and Actaeon andDiana and Callisto (shared byNational Gallery of Scotland with NG London).[5] However, asThe Death of Actaeon was never delivered to Philip, it is not always counted in the series.
Ovid's account does not include Diana herself pursuing Actaeon, or shooting at him, though in some other classical accounts she does chase him. She seems to have just loosed an arrow, but there is no sign of the arrow in the painting, nor is the bowstring visible. The goddess does not have her attribute of the small crescent in her hair that Titian's other two depictions in thepoesie do, which troubled one early critic.[6]
There were ancient reliefs andengraved gems showing either Diana hunting with dogs, or Actaeon being attacked by his dogs, and a few Renaissance works, but the subject was rare, and "it may be that Titian had never seen another painting or other representation of the subject."[7]
It was probably still in Titian's studio at his death in 1576, and presumably sold in Venice by his heirs. It probably belonged to the famous Venetian collection ofBartolomeo della Nave, most of which was bought forJames Hamilton, 1st Duke of Hamilton (then still a Marquess) in 1636–38, one of the great collectors of the period in Britain. Hamilton's brother-in-law,Basil Feilding, 2nd Earl of Denbigh (as he later became) was English ambassador to Venice, and helped to arrange the purchase. A list of available paintings he sent Hamilton includes "A Diana shooting Adonis in forme of a Hart not quite finished" by Titian.[8]
Hamilton, who was a Royalist commander in theEnglish Civil War, was captured and executed in 1649 after losing theBattle of Preston toOliver Cromwell. This, like most of his collection, was bought byArchduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria, Governor of the Spanish Netherlands from 1647 to 1656. The painting appears (looking rather lighter in tone than today) inDavid Teniers the Younger's painting of theGallery of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm (1651, nowRoyal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels),[9] as well as his different versions of the subject now inPetworth House and theKunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.
The archduke seems to have given it to QueenChristina of Sweden, whose route into exile went through theSpanish Netherlands, before she settled in Rome. It does not appear in an inventory of her collection made inAntwerp in 1656, but is in one made in Rome in 1662 or 1663.[10] After her death it eventually passed, with much of her collection, into theOrleans Collection in Paris in 1721. Like most of the collection, it was bought by a consortium in London after theFrench Revolution, and then sold in 1798 toSir Abraham Hume, 2nd Baronet for the modest sum of 200 guineas, the price no doubt reflecting that it was considered by Hume and others as unfinished.[11] Hume described it as "a great painting never finished but quite beautiful".[12]
Hume was the author of the firstmonograph on Titian, published in 1829, and "was especially appreciative of preliminary sketches by Venetian artists (or what he believed to be such)."[13] His collection passed by descent toAdelbert Brownlow-Cust, 3rd Earl Brownlow, who was made a Trustee of the National Gallery in 1897. By 1914 Brownlow needed to raise some cash, and offered the gallery this painting for £5,000 and a portrait byAnthony van Dyck for £10,000, writing "I only ask from the Gallery what I consider to be a very low price because I am anxious to see them in the gallery".[14]
The van Dyck was bought but the Titian declined, because of the opposition of another trustee,Alfred de Rothschild, who declared that the Titian "would not fetch £5 atChristie's". Other trustees may have been in favour but the "difficult character" of Rothschild, who was hoped to be planning a bequest to the gallery, might have resigned if the purchase was made. In 1919 the painting was bought via the dealersColnaghi's for £60,000 byHenry Lascelles, 6th Earl of Harewood (then Viscount Lascelles), giving "the measure of Rothschild's expertise and of Brownlow's generosity".[15]
In 1971, when the painting had already been on loan to the National Gallery for ten years, the trustees of the7th Earl sold the painting atChristie's for £1,680,000. It was bought by the dealer Julius Weitzner and swiftly resold to theJ. Paul Getty Museum inMalibu for £1,763,000. At this point an export licence was needed, and theReviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art suspended granting one for one year to allow a British buyer to match this price.[16] The public campaign in 1971 to buy it for the United Kingdom was one of the great successes ofMartin Davies's directorship of theNational Gallery, despite Davies's own lukewarm enthusiasm for the painting. It was eventually purchased in 1972 (as catalogue number NG6420) with £1,000,000 from the gallery's funds and a special Treasury grant matching other donations pound for pound; these included £100,000 from theArt Fund and £50,000 from thePilgrim Trust, the rest raised by a public appeal, then a great innovation.[17]
