BALDUCCI, Matteo
(b. before 1509, Fontignano, d. 1554, Citta della Pieve)

Diana and Actaeon

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Panel, diameter 57 cm
Private collection

This panel, probably a birth salver (a tray used for carrying gifts to a woman who had given birth), is an amusing rendition of the story taken from Ovid's Metamorphoses. The group of Diana and the bathing nymphs is an adaptation of the antique Three Graces, which was already displayed in the Piccolomini Library in Balducci's day.