Pair of Salt Cellars with the Story of Actaeon

Description This pair of salt cellars is decorated with the popular tale of Actaeon from "The Metamorphoses" by the Roman poet Ovid (43 BC-AD 17). Actaeon, a young hunter, accidentally sees the goddess Diana bathing. She notices the young hunter and, in a rage, transforms him into a stag. Actaeon's hunting dogs do not recognize him and kill him. The moral of this story was that it is possible to sin unintentionally.

Provenance Frederic Spitzer [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Sale, Paris, April 17, 1893, lot 519-20; Jacques Seligmann, Paris [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1902, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters, 1902