Was first owned by Walter Crane before being moved to an unknown source, before being owned by the Art Renewal Center today.
In this painting, Diana, the Roman counterpart of Artemis, the Greek virgin goddess of the hunt, moon and virginity, evident by her signature bow and arrows and two dog companions despite wearing a longer tunic compared to her more common depictions, lovingly gazing at a sleeping Endymion, a handsome mortal shepherd and symbol of timeless beauty.
The painting depicts the Greek myth of Diana (Selene, the Titan goddess of the moon, in the original, but later adaptations, such as this painting, will feature Diana) falling in love with Endymion. Diana asks her beloved father Zeus (Jupiter in Roman mythology) to grant Endymion eternal youth. Endymion ends up falling into eternal sleep, due to different factors depending on the interpretation. According to some interpretations, Zeus punished Endymion with eternal sleep after suspecting the latter about an affair with Hera, Zeus’s wife and the goddess of family and marriage. Other interpretations suggest that Zeus gifted Endymion with eternal sleep and youth and to grant his beloved daughter her wish, allowing Diana to visit him and watch him sleep every night.
Despite Diana being commonly known as a virgin goddess, along with her half-sister Athena and her aunt Hestia, this myth portrays her and Endymion in a romantic light that sets itself apart from her other depictions.
Diana and Endymion is a popular mythological theme in Western art, primarily depicting the Roman goddess of the moon visiting the sleeping shepherd Endymion to admire his beauty. The subject stems from Ovid and represents themes of love, desire, and eternal sleep, featuring artists like Jérôme-Martin Langlois, Pierre Subleyras, and Francesco Solimena.
