[5] Crocale, Nephele, Hyale, Rhanis, Psecas, and Phiale are known as Oceanids, a title given to the roughly three thousand water nymphs who were the daughters of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys; 60 of whom including these were chosen to be the handmaidens of Diana.

She is wearing a crown with a crescent moon on it and is being covered by a dark-skinned maidservant and is accompanied by a small brown dog who barks at Actaeon from Diana’s feet.

Furious at the thought of being seen naked by a man, Diana as a result of this incursion will then splash the unfortunate Actaeon with water, causing him to transform into a stag who is then pursued and ultimately killed by his own hounds which are shown eagerly crowding around the hunter's feet at the bottom left.

[4] In the original poem, the setting was described as “A spacious grotto, all around o’er-grown With hoary moss, and arch’d with pumice stone.” The arch itself, as described in the poem, has traditionally been depicted as a naturally occurring structure commonly referred to as “nativum arcum”; however, as a result of deep synthesis of the subject matter Titian instead substituted these natural forms by replacing the grotto with the ruins of a Gothic cathedral and adding a rusticated stone column in the centre of the fountain that the nymphs bathe in.

[8] From the time of the Romans to the Renaissance, the construction of private grottos for hosting parties and displaying art was a popular practice amongst the 16th-century elite of Europe where rustication was a sought-after skill that was utilized to thin the line between natural and man-made features.

Perched on top of one of the columns is the skull of a stag which happens to be in direct eyesight of Actaeon and alongside the deer pelts hanging from the branches next to it, acts as a means of symbolic foreshadowing of the future that is to befall the young nobleman.

[9] The keystone of the arch facing the viewer is carved with the visage of a lion which is assumed to have been a subtle nod to the city of Venice which was an adoptive home of the artist.

A major factor that separated Titian from many other Renaissance artists was his adoption of the colorito technique which utilized the consistent mixing and layering of pigments and freehanded brushwork to create a more naturalized appearance to the composition.

[9] Titian's use of freehand brushstrokes came to be viewed as having sprezzatura, which describes the almost effortless movements of the brush resulting in what some called an unfinished or non-finito final product.

As a result of this new laid back approach, works like Diana and Actaeon would become widely influential and inspire adaptations of its style among many 16th century Italian painters.

[3] This methodology contrasted with the disegno method that was popular with Florentine contemporaries like Raphael and Michelangelo which favoured the use of preliminary model based sketches to achieve a more idealized depiction of their subjects.

[10] By layering and mixing pigments to create more natural tones, Titian was able to utilize a more sombre colour palette to depict a wide range of emotional responses and positions with his subjects.

[8] This shift in style alongside his adoption of heavy brushwork are believed to be side effects of the aging artist's failing eyesight; since at the time of painting this work Titian was well into his late 60s.

[5] Some scholars have described Diana and Actaeon as one of the first Baroque works due to its use of horizontals for compositional organization and the application of diagonals to demonstrate the physical motion of the poem's subjects.

[4] The gothic ruins in the background also contain evidence of foreshortening as employed in the illustrated angles of the columns and the almost overlapping positions of the groin vault and the arched entryways at either end.

[20][21][22] Though the campaign received some criticism for the Duke's motives or (from John Tusa and Nigel Carrington of the University of the Arts London) for distracting from funding art students,[23] it gained press support from both the tabloid and broadsheet print media in the UK[24] – imitative nude photoshoots of it were featured in both The Sun (using the newspaper's Page 3 models photoshopped onto the painting) and The Mirror (including the actor Kim Cattrall and featured in a piece by Andrew Graham-Dixon on The Culture Show).

[30] Speculation began when the original 31 December deadline passed without definite news and the Scottish Government's announcement of a contribution of £17.5 million in January 2009 triggered a political row, with Ian Davidson questioning the deal at a time of economic hardship.