Alpheus and Arethusa

Antonio Verrio decorated the Painted Room in the Little Banqueting House at Hampton Court Palace for William III to provide a grand but intimate setting for the King to entertain his guests. The room appears to be a richly carved interior with framed pictures, but the whole effect is achieved by the illusionistic devices typical of baroque mural painting, with extensive gilding work by Peter Cousen.

Around all four walls, Verrio depicted the various amorous adventures and misadventures of the ancient gods. Here, the god of the river Alpheus lustily pursues the nymph Arethusa, while Diana attempts a rescue, concealing Arethusa by a cloud before transforming her into a stream. Such highly coloured mythological fantasies, derived for the most part from the Metamorphoses written by the Roman poet, Ovid, were probably chosen as suitably playful subjects for William's male companions: most have a watery theme too, appropriate for a riverside banqueting house.

In 1864, the Little Banqueting House was granted as a Grace-and-Favour residence to Miss Elizabeth Baly, whose Victorian sensibilities provoked a letter to the Lord Chamberlain, requesting that "the large undressed figures on each side of the fireplace ... be either draped or clouded in such a manner as to render them appropriate decorations for a drawing room."