Diana

By 1637 Simon Vouet was the most powerful painter in France. He had spent years in Rome absorbing the new Italian manner, then Louis XIII called him home, made him first painter to the king, and handed him the big decorative commissions and a busy Paris studio. This Diana comes out of that world, the Roman goddess of the hunt and the moon, given the bright colour and easy grace Vouet had learned in Italy and was now teaching a generation of French painters. The crescent moon on her brow marks her as the moon goddess, the bow and quiver as the huntress. The picture later crossed the Channel into the English royal collection, and it still hangs at Hampton Court Palace, outside London.