Apollo and Diana

Gerard van Honthorst painted Apollo and Diana around 1628, a mythological composition showing the twin Olympian deities in a luminous outdoor setting that demonstrates his ability to work in the daylit register alongside his better-known candlelit nocturnal compositions. Apollo, god of sun and music, and Diana, goddess of the moon and the hunt, are depicted together in the classical tradition, their divine attributes — Apollo's lyre, Diana's crescent moon — identifying them while Honthorst's characteristic warmth of flesh-tone rendering gives them physical presence. The work shows him adapting his skills in the direction of the mythological ideal image that was one of the period's most commercially important genres.

The luminous mythological figures are painted in Honthorst's later, more classical manner, with smoother modeling and brighter colors replacing the dramatic chiaroscuro of his earlier candlelit scenes.