Actaeon, Changed into a Stag, Attacked by One of His Own Hounds
late 18th century
Medium
Pen and brown ink, brown wash
Dimensions
5 9/16 x 10 1/4 in. (14.2 x 26 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Robert Lehman Collection
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Robert Lehman Collection, 1975
Accession Number
1975.1.488
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the late 18th century, Domenico Tiepolo, of the renowned Venetian master Giovanni Battista Tiepolo crafted this dynamic drawing titled *Actaeon, Changed a Stag, Att by One of His Ownounds*. Depicting a dramatic moment from Ovid's *amorphoses*, it shows the hunter Actaeon—punished by the goddess Diana for glimpsing her bathing—transformed a stag and savagely pursued by his own hounds. Tiepolo's Rococo sensibility infuses the scene with theatrical energy, capturing the mythological tragedy with vivid motion and pathos. Executed in pen and brown ink with brown wash on a modest scale (5 9/16 x...
About the Artist
Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo · 1727–1804
Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (1727-1804) was a Venetian painter, printmaker, and draftsman whose career spanned the twilight of the Rococo era. Born on August 30, 1727, in Venice as the eldest son of the celebrated Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, he worked both in his father's shadow and as a significant independent artist who developed a distinctly earthbound and humanistic vision. Domenico's importance...