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Catalogue raisonné: Description in Italian Paintings: Three Centuries of Collecting, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2015, cat.no. 48: 

FORMER INV. NOS.: 48 (M. 1796–97); 187 (F. 1798); 402 (M. 1804);
KM 211; NM 7.
TECHNICAL NOTES: The support is a single piece of coarse,
plain-weave linen fabric (12 x 12 threads/cm2). The ground is red.
The painting has been lined with glue and mounted with staples
on a Martelli strainer. This was probably done in Italy before shipping
to Sweden. Impastos in the paint layer have been flattened
due to the lining. The paint layer is abraded. There are many old
retouches. X-ray reveals a change in the composition. The head
of the maid to the right of Diana was earlier turned to the left and
downwards. In the version now visible, she has her head turned
upwards, to the right. Documented restorations: 1990: An old tear
in the canvas was reinforced. Retouching; 2007: Retouching and
reduction of yellowed varnish. Varnish.
PROVENANCE: Martelli 1804.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Sander 1872–76, III, p. 131, no. 402 (as Francesco
Albani, after).

The present painting, together with its pendant
NMDrh 710 (cat. no. 47), is attributed in Fredenheim’s
catalogue to Albani.¹ It was later attributed
to Crespi by Pontus Grate, an attribution
which could be correct.²

The painting appears to belong naturally to
Crespi’s series of Ovidian pastoral landscapes.
The composition is harmoniously balanced
through the interplay of Diana and her nymphs,
an interplay that is conveyed as much by poses as
by the interlocking eyes of the figures. Recurring
Crespi types for these kinds of pastorals are, for
example, the nymph undressing in the centre left
foreground and the seated nymph, behind and to
the right of Diana, whose profile is of a typical
Crespi kind. In fact, all the facial types, both that
of Diana and those of her nymphs, are typical of
Crespi’s small figures in landscapes, with their
strongly marked and somewhat upturned noses,
and eyes that seem to slant somewhat, depicted
by single fine brushstrokes. An interaction of
figures with these kinds of characteristics can be
found in paintings such as The Finding of Moses
and David and Abigail in the Museo del Palazzo
di Venezia, Rome.³

The striding woman carrying the rabbits,
entering the scene from the right, is very similar
to the woman with the staff found in the painting
of the Nurture of Jupiter, in the Kimbell Art
Museum, Fort Worth, and is again a recurring
type in Crespi’s oeuvre, also seen for example in
the painting of the Nymphs Guarding the Sleeping
Cupids in the Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna.⁴

IR reflectography has revealed pentimenti
which show that the nymph with the upturned
face was originally depicted in a more pensive
mood, with her head resting in her arms. The finely
detailed depiction of the hunting dogs shows
Crespi’s command of animal painting and reveals
his extensive study of these subjects, as well as
of the work of artists such as Cerquozzi.⁵ In the
tradition of Albani, the landscape seems to be
bathed in the twilight of the late afternoon, and
the detailed background landscape is built around
glades with finely detailed trees and bushes.

If considered autograph, this painting should in
all likelihood be placed in the late period of Crespi’s
career. Perhaps even more so than its pendant,
it should then be viewed as an exception in terms
of the artist’s treatment of light and background
landscape in his bucolic pastorals.⁶ However,
there are in fact other paintings attributed to
Crespi that are similar to the present one in this
respect; indeed, the similarity in light and mood
between the present work and the two versions of
the Nurture of Jupiter, in the Kimbell Art Museum,
Fort Worth, and the Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart,
is striking.⁷ Those pictures are painted on copper
and Crespi has therefore modified his technique
to suit the medium, yet the rendering of the
background landscape in quite short, distinctive
brushstrokes to convey sky, mountains and meadows
is akin to that found in the Nationalmuseum
paintings.
dp

1 NM Archives, Kongl. Museum, F:1, Catalogue du Cabinet
de Martelli (à Rome).
2 NM Archives, Dokumentationsarkivet: NMDrh 710.
3 Spike 1986, pp. 146–147, cat. no. 19, fig. 19.1. Emiliani and
Rave 1990, pp. 388–389, 400–401, cat. nos. 69, 75.
4 Spike 1986, pp. 154–155, cat. no. 22, fig. 22.1. Emiliani and
Rave 1990, pp. 292–293, cat. no. 22.
5 Miller 1985, pp. 339–342.
6 Ibid.
7 Spike 1986, pp. 154–155, cat. no. 22, fig. 22.1. [End]

Diana och nymfer