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A young woman leans over to caress the head of a young man lying on the ground with his eyes closed in this square painting. The woman has pale skin and the man has a more peachy complexion. The woman is in the center with her body angled to our right, on the far side of the young man so we see her from the knees up. The hand closest to us is lifted with fingers spread, and she gently touches his hair with the other. A blond braid wraps over her forehead and another is plaited across the back of her head, which is topped by a crescent moon. Her ivory-white chemise exposes a bare shoulder and her breast, and a translucent sash crosses her chest. An ocean-blue mantle loosely wraps around her middle and the ends fly out behind. Soft light coming from the upper left casts her face in shadow and illuminates the young man who lies propped against a boulder to our right. He has curly, dark brown hair, and his mouth hangs slightly open. One arm rests across his waist and a rope or ribbon wraps around that wrist. His other arm is propped on the rock so that hand curls toward his neck around a long, thin staff. A brass horn lies on the ground nearby. A crimson-red cloak drapes around his moss-green tunic, which is open at the neck to expose a smooth, wide chest. One leg is bent with his sandaled foot resting on the ground while the other is partially extended. Two shaggy, white and brown dogs sit at his feet on the left side. One looks at the man, the other at us. A broken tree trunk juts into the scene at the center left edge, and a tree grows up along the right side just beyond the man. Towering gray and tan clouds fill the sky. The artist inscribed in the lower right, “Jordanus / F.”

Luca Giordano

Diana and Endymion, c. 1675/1680

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 149.2 x 164 cm (58 3/4 x 64 9/16 in.)

framed: 170.2 x 185.4 x 9.2 cm (67 x 73 x 3 5/8 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Joseph F. McCrindle in memory of Mr. and Mrs. J. Fuller Feder and in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art

Accession Number

1991.20.1

Artists / Makers

Luca Giordano (artist) Neapolitan, 1634 - 1705

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Inscription

lower right: Jordanus / F.

Provenance

(J.A. Tooth, London); purchased 24 May 1960 by (P. & D. Colnaghi, London); (sale, Sotheby's, London, 10 May 1967, no. 147);[1] Joseph F. McCrindle [1923-2008], New York; gift 1991 to NGA.

[1] The name of the consignor to the 1967 sale was kindly supplied by Chloe Stead of Sotheby's (e-mail, 22 March 2010), and Colnaghi's source and purchase date were kindly supplied by Livia Schaafsma of that firm (e-mail, 23 March 2010); both messages in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

McCrindle, Joseph F.
Sotheby's

Exhibition History

1967: Extended loan, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1967-1973.

1973: Extended loan, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, 1973-1987.

1987: Extended loan, Princeton University Art Museum, 1987-1991.

1991: Art for the Nation: Gifts in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1991, 76-77, color repro.

2009: Lágrimas de Eros [Tears of Eros], Fundación Caja Madrid, Madrid, 2009-2010, no. 82, repro.

Technical Summary

The support is a medium-weight, open plain-weave fabric. The ground is a dark brown layer of medium thickness. Using broad rapid brushstrokes, the paint was thickly applied everywhere but in the shadows, where its thin, transparent application allows the ground to show through and darken the shadows. X-radiographs reveal several artist's changes. The moon was once directly over Diana's forehead. Diana's hand was placed lower, around Endymion's neck, and her hairstyle was slightly different at the neck. The upper sections of Diana's billowing blue drapery were somewhat larger, and the upper edge of the bottom section was originally higher. Endymion looked out at the viewer rather than up at Diana. The mouth of the dog at right may have been open.

The tacking margins have been removed, but cusping is present along all four sides. The painting is in good condition aside from minor abrasion and small inpainted losses scattered throughout and concentrated just left of center. The dark appearance results from the paint having become more transparent with age, allowing the dark color of the ground to dominate. The varnish is clear. The painting, which was lined at an unknown date, has not been treated since acquisition.

Bibliography

1987: Colton, Judith. In A Taste for Angels. Neapolitan Paintings in North America 1650-1750. Exh. cat. Yale Univ. Art Gallery, New Haven; John and Mable Ringling Mus. of Art, Sarasota, Florida; Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City. Sarasota, 1987: 138.

1996: De Grazia, Diane, and Eric Garberson, with Edgar Peters Bowron, Peter M. Lukehart, and Mitchell Merling. Italian Paintings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1996: 117-120, color repro. 119.

2003: Ferrari, Oreste, and Giuseppe Scavizzi. Luca Giordano. Naples, 2003: 58, no. A0113, color repro.

2011: Manning, Peter J. "Wordsworth's 'Illustrated Books and Newspapers' and Media of the City." In Peter, Larry H., ed. Romanticism and the City. New York, 2011: 233, 240 n. 22.

2012: Grasselli, Margaret M., and Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr., eds. The McCrindle Gift: A Distinguished Collection of Drawings and Watercolors. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art. Washington, 2012: 10, 19, repro. 184.