DOMENICO ANTONIO VACCARO
(Naples, 1678 – 1745)

Diana and Hippolytus

Oil on canvas
29 ½ x 40 inches (75 x 101.6 cm)

Provenance:

Major-General Edward Henry Goulburn (1903–1980), Shropshire, UK; from whom acquired in the late 1970s by:

Private Collection, Florence, until 2025.

Literature:

Nicola Spinosa, Pittura Napoletana del Settecento dal Barocco al Rococò, Naples, 1986, p. 88, 151, cat. no. 211, fig. 39.

Riccardo Lattuada in, Domenico Antonio Vaccaro: Sintesi delle Arti, ed. Benedetto Gravagnuolo e Fiammetta Adriani, Naples, 2005, pp. 53-55, 425, fig. 59.

Domenico Antonio Vaccaro was accomplished and celebrated as a sculptor, painter, and architect in 18th century Naples. His father, the sculptor Lorenzo Vaccaro gave him his initial education in that medium. But for painting Lorenzo introduced him to his “dear and illustrious friend” Francesco Solimena, with whom he trained and whose influence is manifest in a series of paintings carried out between the 1690s and 1708. According to Vaccaro’s biographer, Bernardo De Dominici, at the beginning of his career the artist painted several altarpieces for churches in Naples, well as mythological scenes both on copper and canvas for Italian patrons as well as English collectors traveling the peninsula.[i] Vaccaro ceased painting in 1708, evidently as a consequence of his losing a commission to Solimena for the vault of the sacristy in San Domenico in Naples. He then focused on sculpture and architecture, only returning to painting around 1720. 

By that time Vaccaro’s painting style had transformed. His work shed many of the dark and visceral qualities of his earlier works and his paintings acquired a new elegance and clarity with a brighter palette and increased legibility of subject. The present work, depicting Diana and Hippolytus, is a characteristic example of Vaccaro’s later style. In classical mythology, Hippolytus was the son of Theseus, who slayed the Minotaur. Hippolytus was a hunter who was famously chaste, and he devoted himself to the cult of Diana, the virgin huntress. Venus, the goddess of love, was enraged by Hippolytus’s chastity and his worship of her rival, Diana, and plotted his demise. Our painting makes no reference to Hippolytus’s impending death, which was the subject of one of the tragedies by the Greek poet and dramatist Euripides. Instead, Hippolytus encounters Diana, who seemingly comes to his aid—gifting him one of her arrows, as well as a young hunting dog led by two putti.

Vaccaro’s treatment of the theme stands out for the balanced, airy composition that is filled with points of visual interest throughout. In the center, the Diana sits upon a cloud and a half-moon (her symbol), while several vignettes play out around her. In the upper left, two putti carry a swag of purple cloth and a crown of flowers with which they are about to adorn her. In the lower left, her chariot pulled by two deer awaits, while in the right background beyond the tree, a group of huntresses has already begun their chase. The composition is punctuated by Vaccaro’s masterful command not only of color, but of light and shadow, as the principal figures are vividly depicted in bright and bold hues.

The present work likely dates from around 1735. It has been proposed that our painting belonged to a larger group or series of works, including a Bacchus and Ariadne on the Isle of Naxos and a Birth of Asclepius (with which our Diana and Hippolytus previously appeared on the London art market) given their matching dimensions and compatible mythological subjects (Figs. 1-2).[ii]

[i] Bernardo De Dominici, Vite de’ Pittori, Scultori, ed Architetti Napoletani, Naples, 1765, vol. 3, p. 481.

[ii] Nicola Spinosa, Pittura Napoletana del Settecento dal Barocco al Rococò, Naples, 1986, cat. no. 211, p. 151.