Andries Lens, Diana and Actaeon by Atelier Liesjes

About "Andries Lens, Diana and Actaeon"

by Atelier Liesjes

About the artwork

Diana was the Roman goddess of hunting, as well as of wild nature, of birth and of the moon. Aktaion or Actaeon is a figure from Greek mythology. He was the son of Aristaios and Autonoe and was from Boeotia. Aktaion was an excellent hunter. One day he was hunting along with his fifty dogs in the valley of Gargaphia near the city of Orchomenos. He was thirsty and wanted to drink from the stream that ran through the valley. Suddenly he saw the goddess of hunting Artemis or Diana there. Together with some nymphs, she was bathing naked in the spring from which the stream sprang. Aktaion stood still and gazed at the beauty of the virgin goddess. Enraged at the fact that he spied on her, Artemis turned him into a deer. Andries Cornelis Lens or André Corneille Lens (Antwerp, 31 March 1739 - Brussels, 30 March 1822) was a Flemish painter, illustrator, art theorist and art pedagogue. He is known for his history paintings of biblical and mythological subjects and portraits. Wanting to contribute to the revival of painting in Flanders, he drew inspiration from the classical traditions of the 16th century and from Raphael. This made him a promoter of neoclassicism in Flemish art. He was a teacher and director of the Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. Lens was court painter to the governor general of the Austrian Netherlands and settled in Brussels where he married.