From the museum website, 15 July 2009
The story from classical antiquity about the fateful encounter between the mythical huntsman Actaeon and the goddess Diana (Artemis), dramatized chiefly by the poet Ovid in Metamorphoses, achieved exceptional popularity in sixteenth-century France. There, influenced by the social, political and cultural milieu, it became an example of the Mannerism of what is known as the School of Fontainebleau. Evidence of this is the painting by Bernaert de Rijckere from the Collections of Prague Castle. This mini-exhibition from ‘The Picture Gallery Up Close’ series seeks to acquaint Gallery visitors with the fascinating and influential context in which a surprising number of works on this topic were made, and also to present lesser-known views of the metamorphosis of the hero Actaeon.