Diana and Callisto

Titian’s career as a court painter-at-large provided a model for that of Rubens, who likewise travelled exceptionally widely in the service of an international cast of rulers. During his travels, Rubens not only studied but also made numerous copies of the Titians in the princely collections of Mantua, Madrid and London. Rubens turned to his predecessor for guidance when composing every kind of subject, while at the same time introducing variations on his compositional models. His own version of the Diana and Callisto story of c. 1639, for example, clearly draws directly on his close study of Titian’s Diana pictures when he visited the court of Madrid in 1628-29.