Diana (Selene) and Endymion
Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini (Venice 1675 - Venice 1741)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1708 - 1719
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1168 x 1930 mm (46 x 76 in)
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Hinton Ampner, Hampshire
NT 1530088
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Diana (Selene) and Endymion by Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini (Venice 1675 - Venice 1741), 1708/19. Diana kneeling over the sleeping Endymion with Cupid at her side. A characteristic work of this Venetian artist, very possibly painted when he was in England, from 1708 to 1713 and again in 1719. Endymion was a shepherd granted perpetual sleep, and thus youth by Zeus (Jupiter), and of such beauty that Selene (Diana), the goddess of the moon, was said to visit him nightly.
Provenance
Purchased by Ralph Stawell Dutton (1898–1985), 8th & last Lord Sherborne, from Malcolm R. Waddingham (2 February 1961); bequeathed to the National Trust by Ralph Stawell Dutton, with the rest of the collections, house, gardens and estate of Hinton Ampner.
Credit line
Hinton Ampner, The Ralph Dutton Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini (Venice 1675 - Venice 1741), artist