Diana and Actaeon, c.1556/59 Tiziano Vecellio Titian (c.1485-1576)

We create our paintings with museum quality and covering the highest academic standards. Once we get your order, it will be entirely hand-painted with oil on canvas. All the materials we use are the highest level, being totally artist graded painting materials and linen canvas.

We will add 1.6" (4 cm) additional blank canvas all over the painting for stretching.

High quality and detailing in every inch are time consuming. The reproduction of Tiziano Vecellio Titian also needs time to dry in order to be completely ready for shipping, as this is crucial to not be damaged during transportation.
Based on the size, level of detail and complexity we need 8-9 weeks to complete the process.

In case the delivery date needs to be extended in time, or we are overloaded with requests, there will be an email sent to you sharing the new timelines of production and delivery.

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We not stretch and frame our oil paintings due to several reasons:
Painting reproduction is a high quality expensive product, which we cannot risk to damage by sending it being stretched.
Also, there are postal restrictions, regarding the size of the shipment.
Additionally, due to the dimensions of the stretched canvas, the shipment price may exceed the price of the product itself.

You can stretch and frame your painting in your local frame-shop.

Once the painting Diana and Actaeon is ready and dry, it will be shipped to your delivery address. The canvas will be rolled-up in a secure postal tube.

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In this painting, we witness a moment of intrusive discovery played out beneath ancient stone arches and a canopy of crisp foliage. The hunter, Actaeon, steps onto the scene from the left, pushing aside a rose-hued drapery and revealing the goddess Diana and her nymphs at their private bathing place. They kneel at a fountain, their pale skin and soft contours stark against the cool tones of water and sky. One nymph turns, startled yet curious, while another lifts a cloth to shield Diana’s body. Even Diana’s small lapdog, poised on the far bank, shows as much indignation as his mistress. There is a disquieting calm here, as if nature itself holds its breath at the unfolding drama.

The color palette is orchestrated with a measured sense of tension. Warm flesh hues, heightened with subtle pinks and creams, contrast with the deep greens of the forest. A sky of light blue merges into distant haze, while earthy browns and muted grays anchor the architecture. This sophisticated interplay of complementary tones, rather than shouting with primary colors, insinuates the scene’s quiet intensity. There are accents of vibrant crimson and gold, but they do not dominate; they hover like a whisper in the greater symphony of hues, guiding the eye without overwhelming it.

Titian’s brushwork reveals a painter thoroughly engaged with his materials. We see him working with confident strokes, layering glazes to achieve delicate transitions of tone. Forms are not hemmed in by firm outlines, but rather shaped by subtle shifts of color and texture. Light dances across the surface, blending flesh and fabric into the air around them. This approach signals the painter’s mature style, in which depiction is secondary to atmosphere, and narrative is infused into every brush mark.

The composition itself is a study in orchestrated movement. Although Actaeon and Diana occupy opposite sides of the image, the angled pillars and arch direct our gaze toward the center, where water ripples and nymphs scramble to maintain modesty. Our eye is drawn from Actaeon’s raised arm, across the pink drapery, into the midst of the bathing women, and then out into the wooded landscape beyond. Yet, as we follow these paths, we return inevitably to Diana, whose sidelong glance is as potent as any spoken word.

Historically, this painting emerges from a period when mythological subjects—here drawn from Ovid’s Metamorphoses—provided the intellectual and sensual core of courtly art collections. Commissioned by King Philip II of Spain, the work took form in the cultural climate of the Venetian Renaissance, where art and poetry often converged. Titian, referring to these mythological pictures as “poesie,” sought to create visual equivalents of literary verse, each brushstroke resonating like a poet’s chosen word.

In this scene, foreboding details—such as the stag’s skull and hanging skins—suggest Actaeon’s terrible fate. Yet Titian’s art lingers on the threshold before tragedy. We know what comes next, but the painting rests in the tension of the moment, neither condemning nor sentimentalizing the figures. It is this delicate equilibrium between sensuality, violence, and grace, combined with a gentle mastery of color and form, that makes the experience of viewing Diana and Actaeon quietly profound.