On the first anniversary of the nation’s acquisition of Titian’s Diana and Actaeon, the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) and the National Gallery in London are delighted to announce a tour of the painting to three venues in Scotland in 2010.
The painting will be on public display in Aberdeen Art Gallery from 28 May to 27 June, at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow from 1 July to 1 August and at the McManus Galleries, Dundee from 6 August to 5 September.
Titian, Diana and Actaeon, 1556-59. © National Gallery, London
Fiona Hyslop, Scottish Minister for Culture, said:
“Increasing access to the nation’s cultural collections is very important to us, so I am pleased to see Diana and Actaeon is to be displayed in Aberdeen, Dundee and Glasgow. I am sure the tour will not only attract visitors to the host venues; it will stimulate interest in other local museums and galleries. This can only be a good thing, both in terms of the benefits of cultural participation to individuals and for the contribution such high profile exhibitions make to local economies.”
Margaret Hodge, Minister for Culture and Tourism said:
“I am really pleased that this picture will now be touring the country. So many individuals and organisations worked together to save it for the nation; it is absolutely right – and thoroughly democratic – that it should now be seen and enjoyed by the widest possible audience.”
John Leighton, Director-General of the NGS said:
“The successful campaign to acquire Titian’s Diana and Actaeon brought one of the great masterpieces of Western art into public ownership. This tour will allow audiences across Scotland to experience the power and magic of this great painting at first hand.”
Dr. Nicholas Penny, Director of the National Gallery, London said:
“Diana and Actaeon was acquired for the nation and the National Gallery in London hopes as wide an audience as possible will be able to enjoy it. We are delighted that the painting will first tour Scotland, the home of the painting for so many years. The National Gallery will announce a further tour to other parts of the United Kingdom when arrangements are finalised.”
Diana and Actaeon was acquired for the nation by the NGS and the National Gallery in London in February 2009, following a large scale public and private fundraising campaign. The painting was bought for £50 million from the Duke of Sutherland with generous contributions from private and public donations, Scottish Government, the National Heritage Memorial Fund, The Monument Trust and The Art Fund, along with National Gallery, London and NGS funds.
Diana and Actaeon has been seen by many thousands of people in London and Edinburgh during the past year. It is currently in London as part of a new display demonstrating Titian’s significant influence on his peers and on later paintings within the National Gallery’s collection, hanging alongside paintings by Cezanne, Rubens, Poussin, Claude, Constable and Titian’s The Death of Actaeon.
There have been numerous projects and events focusing on the picture throughout the past year. Picture in Focus: Diana & Actaeon is a cross-curricular education project for schools run in partnership by the NGS and the National Gallery in London – involving five Scottish high schools and ten UK secondary schools in the pilot stage, before a proposed national roll-out in 2011.
In Scotland Diana and Actaeon also takes prominence within school art tours and is the focus for music recitals, creative writing sessions and the subject for monthly life-drawing classes. In London the painting is the focus of regular Lunchtime and 10 Minute Talks, and will be the subject of Art Through Words (30 January 2010), a project for blind and partially sighted visitors.
