Diana and Actaeon

Born in Utrecht, Paulus van Vianen is one of Europe’s most renowned silversmiths. He produced the gold cup depicting the story of Diana and Actaeon at the peak of his career in Prague in 1610. Exceptionally, we know for whom this cup was made as well as the context in which it functioned.

In this publication, Dirk Jan Biemond places the artwork, for the first time, in the international Kunstkammer tradition around 1600. He illustrates the options the virtuoso silversmith employed to turn stories into visual representations and how these options differed from those available to the painter and the sculptor. In the process, it becomes clear why Paulus van Vianen enjoyed an absolute star status in his lifetime.