# Diana and Callisto [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [SOLDANI BENZI, Massimiliano]() - Date: 1651-1700 - Technique: Bronze with dark-brown lacquer patina, height 41 cm ## Commentary The principal literary source for this sculpture is Ovid's Metamorphoses, the most popular work of classical literature in the Italian Renaissance. Diana's nymphs were expected to be as chaste as the goddess herself. One of them, Callisto, was seduced by Jupiter who first disguised himself as Diana in order to gain the nymphs presence. In Diana and Callisto, the unfortunate Callisto is shown being stripped by her companions at the command of the chaste goddess Diana to reveal her pregnancy. ## Related artworks - [Bacchus \(detail\)]() - [Bacchus]() - [Bust of Agrippa]() - [Bust of Augustus]() - [Bust of Cicero]() - [Bust of Faustina the Younger]() - [Bust of Hadrian]() - [Bust of Marcus Aurelius as a Boy]() - [Bust of Seneca]() - [Bust of the Anima Beata]() - [Bust of the Anima Dannata]() - [Bust of Vitellius]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()