Diana en Callisto 1861 - 1889

William Unger created this engraving, "Diana en Callisto," capturing a scene steeped in classical mythology. The goddess Diana, a symbol of chastity and the hunt, stands rigidly atop a fountain as her nymphs surround Callisto, revealing her pregnancy—a consequence of Zeus’s deception. The act of exposure is a recurring motif. We see echoes of it in other artworks through time: think of Susanna and the Elders, where a woman's privacy is similarly violated, or even the unveiling of secrets in Shakespearean dramas. These acts tap into a deep-seated human fascination with the hidden and the forbidden. The emotional core of this image lies in the psychological tension between purity and shame. The nymphs, acting as agents of Diana’s strict moral code, evoke feelings of communal judgment. Consider how the image is not merely about a single event, but about the cyclical nature of transgression, discovery, and punishment, constantly revisited in art and life.