Jean Mignon (French, active 1535-c. 1555)
after Luca Penni (Italian, 1500/04-1557)
Diana and Actaeon
INV-1042
Jean Mignon (French, active 1535-c. 1555)
after Luca Penni (Italian, 1500/04-1557)1544
Diana and Actaeon
Jean Mignon (French, active 1535-c. 1555) after Luca Penni (Italian, 1500/04-1557) →etchingprint
Date
1544
Medium
Etching in black on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Image: 43 × 58 cm (16 15/16 × 22 7/8 in.); Plate: 43.6 × 58.7 cm (17 3/16 × 23 1/8 in.); Sheet: 49.3 × 68.5 cm (19 7/16 × 27 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Purchased with funds provided by the Print and Drawing Club and John H. Wrenn Memorial Fund
Under the patronage of Francis I, the Royal Palace of Fontainebleau was decorated with paintings and stucco-work by Italian Mannerist artists. A print workshop was also established there to record and publicize the achievements of the masters working at the isolated palace. Jean Mignon was one of the principal printmakers of the Fontainebleau School; this splendid etching, based on a drawing by Luca Penni, displays the extreme elegance and refined, attenuated figures of the Fontainebleau style.
When the young hunter Actaeon stumbles upon the bathing Diana in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, he surprises the chaste goddess, who subsequently splashes water upon him. This print depicts the ensuing moments, in which Actaeon, on the left, is transformed into a deer, and Diana’s nymphs, on the right, attempt to shield their goddess. Based on a drawing by Luca Penni, this etching’s graceful lines and attention to decoration aptly demonstrate Mignon’s participation in the first School of Fontainebleau.