Diana Discovers Callisto's Secret - Flemish School Of  17th Century

Diana discovers Callisto's secret.
Oil on copper plate
Flemish School of  17th century
Copper 76 x 63   frame 88 x 74
Very good condition

This beautiful mythological scene portrays a group of nymphs intent on refreshing themselves at a spring in the woods, and describes a dramatic episode from the myth of Diana and Callisto, taken from Ovid's "Metamorphoses".
  Forced to discover her nudity together with the other nymphs following Diana, Callisto reveals her state of pregnancy, unleashing the wrath of the Goddess who demanded her virginity from all. Four Nymphs hold her unfortunate and show the curves of her belly to the Goddess of hunting, who observes her surrounded by another group of young people with their feet in the water.
The painting is made on a large copper plate and has the pictorial characteristics of the seventeenth-century Flemish school.
The author paints the composition in a very elegant way with soft and perfectly amalgamated shades, where the shades of green, gray and blue of the forest predominate and the diaphanous complexions of the naked and attractive bodies that animate the scene stand out.

Callisto was a young nymph, daughter of Lycaon King of Arcadia, and her name meant "the most beautiful". She was a skilled hunter following the Goddess Artemis and like all her nymphs she had taken a vow of chastity.
Of great ability and with a very attractive appearance, the young Callisto became one of the most fascinating nymphs of her, so much so that she won the attention of Zeus, who fell in love with her. But just to honor her vow of chastity, she repeatedly refused him… offending the pride of the King of the Gods!
   In fact, Zeus did not give up and assuming the remains of Artemis, he deceived Callisto who, happy to satisfy her mistress, granted him her graces, thus breaking her vow of chastity.

One day the true Goddess of hunting and her nymphs decided to stop at a source to bathe. Callisto could not help but undress, thus revealing her secret: she was pregnant with her. Artemis, angry and hurt by the betrayal of her favorite nymph, drove her into exile.

Callisto bore a child named Arcade but her misfortunes were not over.
She was hers, wife of Zeus, discovered the betrayal of her husband was pervaded by her wrath, and transformed the beautiful nymph into a bear.

Not yet satisfied with her vengeance, she Hera ordered the now grown son of Zeus to slay the animal. But before the unfortunate Arcade can kill his own mother without his knowledge, Zeus intervenes by transforming both into two constellations, Ursa Major (Callisto) and Ursa Minor (Arcade).