1750
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
Two designs for overdoor paintings depicting Diana and Acteon (left) and Bacchus and Erigone (right) is a 1750 by James Thornhill, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.
James Thornhill drew two designs for paintings meant to go above doorways. Each shows a scene from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The left one shows Diana bathing while Actaeon looks on. Thornhill added hints that Actaeon turns into a tree. He wrote the figures’ names and their future painting sizes right on the drawings. The right design shows Bacchus as grapes offered to Erigone. Look up the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Two pen-and-ink designs on paper show James Thornhill’s projected overdoor paintings, each illustrating an Ovidian myth. On the left, Diana and Actaeon occupy a grotto scene where Actaeon’s antlered head signals his impending transformation into a tree; on the right, Bacchus in grape form is offered to Erigone as part of Thornhill’s seduction scheme. Thornhill inscribed both sheets with titles, intended placement, and dimensions, over faint black-chalk underdrawing later reinforced with wash.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Sir James Thornhill was an English painter of historical subjects working in the Italian baroque tradition.
See the richer artist page
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