Diana and Her Nymphs on the Hunt

The robust figure of Diana strides into the foreground, swathed in a blood-red robe and clasping a spear behind her back, while a dog jumps up at her side and a satyr tries to steal a kiss from one of her nymphs as another figure shouts behind him. The rhythmic composition, colours and textures create a lifelike sensuousness that demonstrates Peter Paul Rubens’s mastery of Venetian colour and his study of Roman art; the canvas was designed by the master, painted with the help of his workshop, and given its finishing touches by his hand in 1627–28. The painting is held in the J. Paul Getty Museum.