Diana of Versailles
The Diana of Versailles or Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt (French: Artémis, déesse de la chasse) is a slightly over-lifesize[1] marble statue of the Roman goddess Diana (Greek: Artemis) with a deer. It is currently located in the Musée du Louvre, Paris.[2] The statue is also known as Diana with a Doe (French: Diane à la biche), Diana Huntress (French: Diane chasseresse), and Diana of Ephesus. It is a partially restored Roman copy (1st or 2nd century AD) of a lost Greek bronze original attributed to Leochares, c. 325 BC.[3][4]
Description
Diana is represented at the hunt, hastening forward, as if in pursuit of game. She looks toward the right and with raised right arm is about to draw an arrow from her
History
The statue was given by
"Alone amongst the statues exported from Italy before the second half of the seventeenth century the Diane Chasseresse acquired a reputation outside Italy equivalent to the masterpieces in the
In 1602,
Fountain of Diana at Fontainebleau
In 1605, after the marble Roman statue had been removed from Fontainebleau, Barthélemy Prieur cast a replacement, a bronze replica which was set upon a high
At the time of the
Other replicas
Comparable Roman replicas of the same model, noted by the Louvre's website, have been found at Leptis Magna (Libya), at Antalya (Turkey) and also Annaba (Algeria).[citation needed]
Besides the modern era replicas by Prieur and the Keller brothers, a full-size bronze replica was made in 1634 by
A miniature replica of the statue stood on the fireplace mantle in the Titanic's first class lounge. In 1986, Robert Ballard discovered and photographed the statue on the sea floor near the bow section of the wreck.[citation needed]
See also
- Fountain of Diana from the Château d'Anet
Notes
- ^ The statue stands 2.01 meters in height.
- ^ Diane de Versailles (in French), Louvre, 125, retrieved 2023-07-15
- ISBN 9781884446009.
- ^ "Artemis with a Doe", The Louvre Museum. Archived 2 November 2020.
- ^ Anonymous 1996, p. 90.
- ^ "The Story Behind the "Greek Foot" and its Medical Explanation". Greek Reporter.
- ^ "Diane à la biche", Château de Fontainebleau, Archive copy (22 April 2021); Musée du Louvre on-line catalogue, archived 18 August 2018. The archived copy at the Fontainebleau website cites a 1968 manuscript by Boris Lossky, intended for the Bulletin de la Société de l’Histoire de l’art Français. Other sources (Haskell and Penny 1981, p. 196; Anonymous 1996, p. 90) give 1586 as the earliest certain date the statue is known to have been at Fontainebleau (mentioned by the Dutch traveller Van Buchell [Haskell and Penny]) and was reported in the 17th century to have come from the Château de Meudon.
- ISBN 9781317061861.
- ^ "Choice examples of Classic sculpture: Diana, after p. 274 in Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, translated by Henry Reeve, revised edition, vol. 1. New York: The Colonial Press, 1900.
- ^ Haskell and Penny, 1981, p. 196.
- ^ The error was forcefully refuted by Jean-Aymar Piganiol de La Force, Nouvelle description des châteaux et des parcs de Versailles et de Marly (Paris, 1713), Haskell and Penny note (1981:196).
- ^ Date according to the Musée du Louvre on-line catalogue.
- ^ Accession number 589.
- ^ Anonymous 1996, p. 90: "Numerous copies of the statue from the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries attest to its popularity during that era, but the work is widely ignored today."
- ^ Lange is also credited with the first restorations to the Venus de Milo
- Louis-Philippe.
- ^ a b "Diane à la biche", Archive copy (22 April 2021), Château de Fontainebleau; Jean-Marie Pérouse de Montclos, Le château de Fontainebleau (Paris: Scala, 2009), p. 212.
- ^ It is now at Windsor Castle.
References
- Anonymous (1996). "Artemis of Versailles (Diane Chasseresse), p. 90, in Encyclopedia of the History of Classical Archaeology, edited by Nancy Thomson de Grummond. Routledge. Digital reprint 2015: ISBN 9781134268542.
- Collignon, Maxime (1890). Manual of Mythology, in Relation to Greek Art. H. Grevel & Co.. Page 94.
- Haskell, Francis; Nicholas Penny (1981). Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500–1900. Yale University Press. Cat. no. 30.
- Robertson, Martin (1975). A History of Greek Art. Cambridge University Press. Vol. I, pp. 460–461.