Arcas Hunting

This is one of three mythological scenes to decorate a cassone, or chest, illustrating the story of Callisto as told in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Jupiter seducing Callisto, also in the National Gallery, decorated the other end.

Arcas, son of Jupiter and Callisto, draws back his bow. A bear emerges from the woody undergrowth on the left. The green of the foliage surrounding the bear has darkened over time to brown, making it difficult to see. Gold leaf glimmers through the sunlit trees and a breeze sweeps back Arcas’s hair, which, like his bow, arrow and quiver, has been highlighted with gold. The delicate beauty of this scene belies the tragic events about to unfold.

The front of the cassone showed Callisto’s fellow nymphs revealing her pregnancy by Jupiter to the goddess Diana (Musée Picardie, Amiens). Furious, Diana turned Callisto into a bear. Here, Arcas goes out hunting and, not realising that the bear is his mother, he shoots her dead.

Text: © The National Gallery, London

Painting photographed in its frame by Google Arts & Culture, 2023.