Diana, Apollo and Nymph

Tiepolo's Diana, Apollo and Nymph, painted around 1750, depicts the twin deities of the hunt and the sun in a characteristically airy, Rococo mythological setting. Tiepolo treated mythological subjects throughout his career, finding in them the perfect vehicle for his gifts of luminous colour, elegant figure arrangement, and celestial space. Such mythological cabinet pictures complemented his large ceiling commissions and were eagerly sought by collectors across Europe.

The three figures are placed in a sun-drenched landscape, their forms modelled with Tiepolo's characteristic warm light and cool shadow passages. The composition has the ease and grace of a sketch, the figures arranged with apparent spontaneity. His pale, luminous palette and the sketchy, rapid handling of the landscape background are characteristic of his mythological cabinet works.