Resumen de Ut Pictura Non Poesis: Lord Shaftesbury's "Ridiculous Anticipation of Metamorphosis" and the Two Versions of "Diana and Actaeon" by Paolo de Matteis
A comparison of the two versions of Diana and Actaeon by Paolo de Matteis illustrates how in the second version the painter abandoned his "poetic" interpretation of the myth for a "dramatic" one in conformity with Lord Shaftesbury's theoretical views.
Shaftesbury believed that the history painter should follow a "rule of consistency" precluding the temporal metalepsis exhibited, for example, in the many paintings of the Diana and Actaeon story showing the latter's "horns already sprouted" even before "the goddess ... has thrown her cast." The article provides external evidence for dating the paintings, and shows that, in attempting to adapt literary theory to painting, Shaftesbury failed to heed his own advice knowing, as one learns from his notes, that ut pictura non poesis.
