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Diana of Versailles

Diana of Versailles

Details

Artist
Unknown Roman sculptor (Imperial period)
Museum
Louvre Museum
Year
137
Medium
marble (probably Greek), carved in the round
Type
sculpture
Dimensions
200 × 139 cm

The story

In 1556 Pope Paul IV sent this marble huntress to Henri II. The king's mistress was Diane de Poitiers, and the goddess of the hunt was already her emblem at his court. The statue went to Fontainebleau and became the centrepiece of the queen's garden.

In 1602 Henri IV had it brought to the Louvre, into a hall fitted out for antiquities, and ordered a bronze copy from his sculptor Barthélemy Prieur to take its place outdoors. In 1696 Louis XIV installed the marble in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, which gave it its name, and after the Revolution it returned to the Louvre in 1798.

She reaches back to her quiver for an arrow while a small deer leaps at her side. Prieur's bronze has since returned to Fontainebleau and stands in the château's Gallery of the Stags.

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