Diana and Endymion

Luca Giordano

National Gallery of Art

A young woman leans over to caress the head of a young man lying on the ground with his eyes closed in this square painting. The woman has pale skin and the man has a more peachy complexion. The woman is in the center with her body angled to our right, on the far side of the young man so we see her from the knees up. The hand closest to us is lifted with fingers spread, and she gently touches his hair with the other. A blond braid wraps over her forehead and another is plaited across the back of her head, which is topped by a crescent moon. Her ivory-white chemise exposes a bare shoulder and her breast, and a translucent sash crosses her chest. An ocean-blue mantle loosely wraps around her middle and the ends fly out behind. Soft light coming from the upper left casts her face in shadow and illuminates the young man who lies propped against a boulder to our right. He has curly, dark brown hair, and his mouth hangs slightly open. One arm rests across his waist and a rope or ribbon wraps around that wrist. His other arm is propped on the rock so that hand curls toward his neck around a long, thin staff. A brass horn lies on the ground nearby. A crimson-red cloak drapes around his moss-green tunic, which is open at the neck to expose a smooth, wide chest. One leg is bent with his sandaled foot resting on the ground while the other is partially extended. Two shaggy, white and brown dogs sit at his feet on the left side. One looks at the man, the other at us. A broken tree trunk juts into the scene at the center left edge, and a tree grows up along the right side just beyond the man. Towering gray and tan clouds fill the sky. The artist inscribed in the lower right, “Jordanus / F.”