Hans SPEECKAERT (Jan SPECKAERT) (1540-1577), Diana and Acteon

oil, duplicated canvas (wax); 75 x 96.5 cm;
On the back, on the painter's loom, numerous stickers including from Christie's auction house and number: DP/49;
Original, period frame.

In the archives of the RKD - Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis, there is a reproduction of a preparatory sketch with description
for the presented painting. The original drawing is in the Custodia Foundation in Paris.
Other works by the artist are held in the collections of the Louvre Museum in Paris, the Palazzo Patrizi in Rome and a museum in Rotterdam.

The work on offer, is a remarkable painting by Hans Speeckaert, a Flemish Renaissance painter, which is an extraordinary rarity on the world market
auction market. The artist, who most likely came from Brussels, traveled to Italy and visited Rome, hence the influence of the
Italian Renaissance. He did a lot of drawing work, finished compositions, and his drawings and paintings influenced other Flemish painters.
Speeckaert's works may have served as a kind of "template" for Northern European artists. In the archives of the RKD (Nederlands Instituut voor
Kunstgeschiedenis), under number: 2335, there is a reproduction of a sketch, which is a preliminary drawing for the offered painting.
The featured work depicts a scene from Book III of the Metamorphoses by the Roman poet Ovid. In the center of the composition is, surprised during the
bathing, the goddess of the hunt, Diana. The intruder, Actaeon, shown on the right, is already feeling the effects of her wrath and appointed punishment, slowly transforming into a deer,
as evidenced by the antlers shown on his head. The muscular silhouettes of the depicted figures, with taut muscles, may prove the Italian
Renaissance era influences. Another connection worth noting in the featured painting is its subject matter, undertaken by
Italian masters, including Titian in a series of mythological canvases and by Parmigianino. Rome's Palazzo Patrizi is also home to a painting by Hans
Speeckaert showing a simultaneous depiction of Diana's bath and Actaeon's death.
Including the painting from the Palazzo Patrizi, few works by Hans Speeckaert have survived to our time and can be admired in museums around the world, making the
the presented canvas almost unique. Other compositions by the artist can be found in the Louvre in Paris - the biblical scene The Conversion of St. Peter, and in the Rotterdam Museum - the work of Jael and Siser.