Diana and Her Nymphs Discovering Callisto's Pregnancy

Diana sits on the right, pointing accusingly toward Callisto, who is being stripped by several nymphs to reveal her pregnant belly. The figures are rendered with the muscular, elongated proportions typical of the late 16th century, set within a craggy, shaded landscape. Hunting dogs and discarded garments in the foreground emphasize the sudden interruption of the group's ritual cleansing.

As part of Hendrick Goltzius's celebrated series on Ovid's Metamorphoses, this work reflects the Renaissance obsession with classical mythology as a repository of moral and philosophical allegories. Goltzius was a central figure in the Haarlem Mannerist circle, which blended technical virtuosity with the intellectual and Neoplatonic culture of the late 16th-century Netherlands.