Episodes of the myth of Diana, Bon Boullogne (Paris, 1649 – Paris, 1717), workshop of

Bon Boullogne (Paris, 1649 – Paris, 1717), workshop of

Episodes of the myth of Diana – oil on canvas

The beautiful painting proposed shows a series of episodes taken from the myth of the divinity Diana, Roman divinity of hunting, forests and wild animals, masterfully captured in this valuable painting, which shows a lush forest, the divinity's favorite place, as the theater of his adventures.

The composition opens, on the left, with a sort of presentation of the divinity, portrayed as an attractive young girl, surrounded by her faithful nymphs, one of whom holds her quiver with arrows, and one of her beloved hunting dogs . The 'story' continues in the central part where we can see the divinity during a wild boar hunt, again with the goddess preparing to shoot a trail at a wild boar.

The other two scenes concern Diana's love life, in particular with Orion, a talented hunter with whom the divinity fell in love. The scene could represent a moment of intimacy between the two, interrupted by a curious satyr, surprised and punished by Orion himself with the help of a nymph. To conclude, the author wanted to represent the tragic moment in which the goddess cries over the body of her beloved lying on the ground, killed by mistake by an arrow shot by Diana herself, the result of the trap plotted by her jealous brother Apollo, annoyed by the love that her sister felt for a mortal. Here we see Diana vainly adjuring Aesculapius, a divinity capable of resurrecting the dead, of bringing young Orion back to life, who instead will be transformed by Zeus into the constellation of the same name.

The painting can be ascribed to the workshop of the painter Bon Boullogne (Paris, 1649 – Paris, 1717), an exemplary exponent of French painting of the second half of the seventeenth century and member of a dynasty of painters (he was the son of the painter Louis Boullogne, and brother of Louis, Geneviève and Madeleine, all active in their father's workshop) famous for their mythological compositions.

His stay in Rome, from 1670 to 1675, at the French Academy paid by Louis great decoration, suitable, then as now, to embellish high-level bourgeois homes.

In the canvas in question we find in fact all the typical components of the imaginative French master, developed starting from a large part of Italian painting of the 600s, especially Roman and Bolognese, looking at the ways of Carracci and Correggio, with a direct ancestry in particular by Domenichino (remember Diana's hunt in Galleria Borghese), while the chromatic timbre of the entire composition is influenced by the light and luminous tones of Reni, Maratti and Albani. The great tradition of early Roman Baroque painting is revived by Boullogne on a cultural basis that does not overlook the influence of Nicolas Poussin.

The canvas is in a good state of conservation with the presence of several restoration points and a layer of surface oxidation. The photographs published were taken using professional lighting so it is possible that the painting may appear slightly darker if not adequately lit.

The work is accompanied by a beautiful gold frame, ancient but not contemporary.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

The work is sold accompanied by a certificate of authenticity and descriptive iconographic card.
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