Artwork
Diana and her Attendants
Diana and her Attendants is an oil painting by the Flemish Baroque painting artist Cornelius van Poelenburgh. It dates from 1638 and is held in the collection of the Statens Museum for Kunst.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
As a work of mythological genre, the composition centers on the deity and her female attendants, illustrating a narrative scene from classical antiquity.
Cornelius van Poelenburgh's 1638 oil painting depicts the Roman goddess Diana bathing in the company of her nymphs. As a work of mythological genre, the composition centers on the deity and her female attendants, illustrating a narrative scene from classical antiquity. The imagery focuses on the intimate moment of the goddess's ritual ablution, a subject frequently explored in Baroque art to represent themes of chastity and the divine presence within nature.
Technique & Style
Diana and her Attendants is executed in oil paint on panel, a support and medium combination characteristic of seventeenth-century Dutch cabinet pictures by Cornelius van Poelenburgh. The small-scale format, recorded at 17.5 cm in height by 21.5 cm in width, is consistent with the finely handled, miniature-like finish associated with his mythological scenes. Classified as a painting within the mythological genre, the work treats its subject, Diana bathing with her nymphs, in the polished, smooth-tempered manner typical of Poelenburgh's Arcadian compositions.
History & Provenance
Cornelius van Poelenburgh created the oil-on-panel painting Diana and her Attendants in 1638. The work depicts the mythological scene of Diana bathing with her nymphs and measures 17.5 cm in height by 21.5 cm in width. Currently held by the Statens Museum for Kunst, the painting represents a specific instance of the artist's engagement with mythological subjects during the late 1630s.
Cornelius van Poelenburgh's painting Diana and her Attendants is held in the collection of the Statens Museum for Kunst. The work, created in 1638, is an oil painting on panel depicting the mythological subject of Diana bathing with her nymphs. Specific inventory or accession numbers are not provided in the available sources, nor is there recorded exhibition history for this piece in the provided documentation.
Overview
Cornelius van Poelenburgh’s Diana and her Attendants (1638) is an oil painting of modest dimensions that belongs to the Flemish Baroque tradition. Executed while the Dutch artist was residing in Rome, the work presents the Roman goddess Diana amid a tranquil, mist‑filled landscape.
Context
The work exemplifies Poelenburgh’s niche of integrating mythological narratives within bucolic settings, a genre popular among 17th‑century patrons who favored intimate, narrative-driven landscapes. By placing Diana in a serene yet slightly enigmatic environment, the painting aligns with contemporary tastes for classical subjects rendered with a softened, lyrical sensibility.
Artist & collection
Artist
Cornelis van Poelenburgh or Cornelis van Poelenburch (1594 – 12 August 1667), was a Dutch landscape painter and draughtsman.
