Diana of Versailles
As Diana of Versailles , a little is more than life-size statue of marble of the Roman goddess Diana and the Greek goddess Artemis with a deer called. It is in the Galerie des Caryatides in the Louvre in Paris , a room specially designed for the statue (inventory number Ma 589). It is a Roman copy of Hadrianic times (1st half of 2nd century AD) of a lost Greek bronze statue from around 340-320 BC. BC, which is attributed to Leochares (see Artemis of Versailles ).
history
The statue was probably discovered in an ancient sanctuary in Nemi, Italy . Other assumptions are based on the Villa Adriana in Tivoli as the place where it was found.
In 1556 the statue of Pope Paul IV was given to the French King Henry II as a subtle but clearly recognizable allusion to the mistress of King Diana of Poitiers . The king had the statue set up as the central object of the Jardin de la Reine west of the Galerie des Cerfs in Fontainebleau Castle , which made it one of the first Roman sculptures and at the same time the most prominent to be seen in France. As a result, it was the only statues exported from Italy before the second half of the 17th century to achieve a reputation comparable to the masterpieces exhibited in the Cortile del Belvedere or in the Villa Borghese .
In 1602, Henry IV had the statue moved to the Louvre , where it was integrated into a specially made gallery, the Salle des Antiques (now Salle des Caryatides ). Necessary restoration work was carried out by the French sculptor Barthélemy Prieur . In 1605 he cast a bronze replica of the statue, which was placed in Fontainebleau Castle on a marble plinth designed by Tommaso Francini in the Mannerist style. It was accompanied by bronze hunting dogs and water-spouting deer heads, which Pierre Briard had created in 1603. The arrangement was staged in a garden that was surrounded by an orangery . In 1634 Hubert Le Sueur also made a bronze copy of the statue for Ludwig XIII's brother-in-law . Charles I , which can be seen today at Windsor Castle . The orangery was removed by Louis-Philippe I in the middle of the 19th century . In 1813, the statue had already been replaced by another bronze copy, dated 1684, and moved to the gallery des Cerfs .
Louis XIV had the original statue installed in the Grande Galerie in the Palace of Versailles . In 1710, Guillaume Coustou the Elder made a marble copy for Marly-le-Roi Castle . In 1798 it was returned to the Louvre as one of the most prized possessions in France during the First French Republic and was restored in 1802 by Bernard Lange, who had already worked on the Venus de Milo .
description
The statue is slightly larger than life with a height of 2.01 m. The goddess is represented in the form of a slim, masculine huntress with a lively looking deer. She looks to the right, perhaps in the direction of the stag, and her raised right arm is pulling an arrow from its quiver. With her left hand she does not hold the deer by the antlers, contrary to what a cursory glance suggests, but holds a piece of a bow. She wears a short Doric chiton , a himation around her waist and sandals .
More statues
Numerous Roman copies (around 25 pieces) of the Greek original have survived, including from Leptis Magna and Perge .
A miniaturized copy sat on the first class mantelpiece on the Titanic ; In 1986, Robert Ballard discovered and photographed the statue on the ocean floor near the bow section of the wreck. A copy of the statue is also in the Boston Symphony Hall .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Artémis à la biche, dite "Diane de Versailles". Oeuvre romaine d'époque impériale. Louvre Museum, accessed April 20, 2013 (French).
- ^ A b Francis Haskell, Nicholas Penny: Taste and the antique . the lure of classical sculpture, 1500-1900. Yale University Press, New Haven 1981, ISBN 978-0-300-02641-2 .
literature
- Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae Vol. 2, Zurich, Munich 1984, p. 645 No. 250; 805 No. 27.
- Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway: Hellenistic Sculpture. Vol. 1: The Styles of approx. 331-200 BC , University of Wisconsin Press, Madison 2001, ISBN 0-299-11824-X , pp. 93-95.
