Diana and Actaeon

Georg Pecham

1602 · Pen and black ink and brown and blue wash over traces of black chalk · Drawings and Prints

This drawing depicts the ancient Greco-Roman myth in which the hunter Actaeon stumbles upon the goddess Diana’s secret grove and sees her bathing with her nymphs. In anger, Diana transforms the mortal man into a stag so that he will be killed by his own hunting dogs. Pecham situates the characters amidst overgrown ruins, concentrating his attention on the way light filters through the tall, leafy trees and casts delicate shadows on the figures’ fleshy bodies.

Artist

Georg Pecham

Date

1602

Medium

Pen and black ink and brown and blue wash over traces of black chalk

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1939