Diana and Endymion

Image credit: The National Gallery, London

How you can use this image

This image can be used for non-commercial research or private study purposes, and other UK exceptions to copyright permitted to users based in the United Kingdom under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, as amended and revised. Any other type of use will need to be cleared with the rights holder(s).

Review the copyright credit lines that are located underneath the image, as these indicate who manages the copyright (©) within the artwork, and the photographic rights within the image.

The collection that owns the artwork may have more information on their own website about permitted uses and image licensing options.

Review our guidance pages which explain how you can reuse images, how to credit an image and how to find images in the public domain or with a Creative Commons licence available.

Buy a print or image licence

You can purchase this reproduction

If you have any products in your basket we recommend that you complete your purchase from Art UK before you leave our site to avoid losing your purchases.

Notes

Add or edit a note on this artwork that only you can see. You can find notes again by going to the ‘Notes’ section of your account.

This painting shows an episode from Ovid’s Art of Love (Book III: 83). The Roman goddess Diana would visit the shepherd Endymion every night while he slept. According to Cicero, Diana herself induced Endymion’s sleep so that she could enjoy him undisturbed. The subject was a popular one and had been painted by other French artists.In 1728 Subleyras arrived in Rome to study, and he remained there for the rest of his life. This picture, particularly Endymion’s reclining pose, shows Subleyras’s knowledge of antique sculpture and Italian Renaissance painting. The painting’s balanced composition and restrained depiction of its poetic source -- for example, the delicate way Diana barely touches Endymion’s face -- connects it to pastoral and classical tastes that were promoted in Rome at the time.

The National Gallery, London

London

Title

Diana and Endymion

Date

about 1740

Medium

Oil on canvas

Measurements

H 73.5 x W 99 cm

Accession number

NG6592

Acquisition method

Accepted by HM Government in lieu of tax and allocated to the National Gallery, 2002

Work type

Painting

Tags

See a tag that’s incorrect or offensive? Challenge it and notify Art UK.

Help improve Art UK. Tag artworks and verify existing tags by joining the Tagger community.

Normally on display at

The National Gallery, London

Trafalgar Square, London, Greater London WC2N 5DN England

View venue