Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
Joseph Mallord William Turner
Turner Bequest
Collection
Turner owned by Tate
attributed to <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/joseph-mallord-william-turner-558" aria-label="More by Joseph Mallord William Turner" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Joseph Mallord William Turner</a>
Diana and Callisto after Wilson
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
adults
Artemis / Diana
Callisto
classical myths: gods and heroes
figure
fine art and design, named works
group
groups
hill
landscape
objects
people
religion and belief
Wilson, Richard, painting
wooded
<p>Turner’s earliest history paintings followed the example of the Welsh artist Richard Wilson (1713-82). This picture is loosely based on an engraving of one of Wilson’s views of Lake Nemi in the collection of Turner’s patron, Sir Richard Colt Hoare, at Stourhead in Wiltshire.</p><p>Located south-east of Rome, Lake Nemi occupies a volcanic crater and was known as the mirror of Diana. This standard association led Wilson (and subsequently Turner) to add an incident from the myth of Diana to the foreground. Here she has just discovered the pregnancy of Callisto, one of her nymphs, whose tainted purity results in her banishment.</p><p><em>Gallery label, February 2010</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
18 June 2001 – 14 July 2002
2002-07-14
18 June 2001 – 14 July 2002
2002-07-14
2001-06-18
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2001-06-18
From Studio to Gallery: Sketches in the Turner Bequest
Collection based display
12 August 2009 – 19 July 2010
2010-07-19
12 August 2009 – 19 July 2010
2010-07-19
2009-08-12
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2009-08-12
Among the Immortals
Collection based display
Diana and Callisto (after Wilson)
support: 565 × 914 mm
frame: 725 × 1070 × 85 mm
Accepted by the nation as part of the <a href="/search?gid=999999781" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Turner Bequest</a> 1856
<p>Turner’s earliest history paintings followed the example of the Welsh artist Richard Wilson (1713-82). This picture is loosely based on an engraving of one of Wilson’s views of Lake Nemi in the collection of Turner’s patron, Sir Richard Colt Hoare, at Stourhead in Wiltshire. 
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<br/>Located south-east of Rome, Lake Nemi occupies a volcanic crater and was known as the mirror of Diana.  This standard association led Wilson (and subsequently Turner) to add an incident from the myth of Diana to the foreground. Here she has just discovered the pregnancy of Callisto, one of her nymphs, whose tainted purity results in her banishment.
<br/></p>

Display caption
2010-02-18T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>43. </b>[<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-diana-and-callisto-after-wilson-n05490" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05490</span></a>]<b> Diana and Callisto</b> <i>c.</i> 1796
<br/>
<br/>THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (5490)
<br/>Canvas, 22 1/4 × 36 (56·5 × 91·5)</p>
<p><b>Coll.</b> Turner Bequest 1856; transferred to the Tate Gallery 1951.</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> Davies 1946, p. 159; Gage 1974, p. 72, pl. 15.</p>
<p></p>
<p>This is a copy or variant of Richard Wilson's much repeated <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a> (see W.G. Constable, <i>Richard Wilson</i> 1953, pp. 164–5, pls. 23a and b, 24a.). John Gage has suggested that, as it is closest in certain details to J. Wood's <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/engraving" title="Glossary definition for 'Engraving'"><span>engraving</span></a> of 1764 of a picture described as being in the collection of Henry Hoare (repr. Gage, <i>op. cit.</i>, pl. 14), it reflects Turner's knowledge of the original, which he could have seen at Stourhead. However, a version by Wilson still in the Hoare collection (but unknown to Gage when he wrote his article) is in the reverse direction to both the engraving and to the Turner and differs in several particulars from both (as Constable points out, neither the dimensions nor the format of Wood's engraving match those of the Wilson still in the Hoare collection). Turner is as likely, therefore, to have worked from the engraving as from the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a>.
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<br/>Nevertheless, in so far as one can tell from the dirty and damaged condition of the Turner, it is crudely enough handled to justify Gage's dating of <i>c.</i> 1796, some two years earlier than Turner's most Wilsonian period. The main damages are in the sky and in the tree on the left. The painting is now (1984) being restored.</p>
<p>
<br/><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, <i>The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner</i>, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-07T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults Artemis / Diana Callisto classical myths: gods and heroes figure fine art and design, named works group groups hill landscape objects people religion and belief Wilson, Richard, painting wooded