Diana at the Bath

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Artist: James Ward (British, 1769–1859)
Medium: Oil on panel
Size: 30 x 25 1/2 inches (76.2 x 64.8 cm)
Museum: Yale Center for British Art
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

Diana, chaste goddess of the moon and the hunt, is shown splashing water at the trespasser and voyeur Actaeon, a mortal who spied upon her and her nymphs bathing in her sacred grove. The offended goddess transformed Actaeon (who is not represented here) into a stag and he was subsequently torn to pieces by his own hunting dogs.

Although based on the myth of Diana and Actaeon from Ovid’s Metamorphoses and painted in emulation of Titian, many reviewers criticized James Ward’s painting as lewd and without artistic merit when it was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1830. As one outraged critic thundered, “How coarse-minded is the mistake of indecency for beauty and voluptuousness!” Unlike Actaeon, who was punished by death for his transgression, the viewer standing in front of the painting is allowed to gaze upon the naked goddess and her nymphs with impunity and without detection.

Text: Yale Center for British Art.