Show me:
and
Clear all filters

  • 34 items
  • 25 items Explore
  • 89 items
  • 3,438 items Explore
  • 97 items Explore
  • 280 items
  • 4 items
  • 220 items
  • 13,284 items Explore
  • 209 items Explore
  • 1,225 items Explore
  • 8,751 items Explore
  • 5,089 items Explore
  • 14 items Explore
  • 165 items Explore
  • 13,005 items Explore
  • 13,617 items Explore
  • 4,810 items Explore
  • 1 items
  • 5 items
  • 149 items Explore
  • 2,000 items Explore
  • 4,759 items Explore
  • 422 items Explore
  • 252 items
  • 102 items Explore
  • 19,977 items Explore
  • 34 items Explore
  • 1,925 items Explore
  • 1,083 items Explore
  • 5 items
  • 2,104 items Explore
  • 2 items
  • 456 items Explore
  • 920 items Explore
  • 1 items Explore
  • 5 items
  • 7 items
  • 20,318 items Explore
  • 800 items Explore
  • 19 items
  • 73 items Explore
  • 33 items
  • 793 items
  • 20 items
  • 4 items
  • 26 items
  • 61 items
  • 28 items
  • 319 items Explore
  • 6 items
  • 44 items Explore
  • 1 items
  • 2 items
  • 2 items
  • 7 items
  • 121 items Explore
  • 119 items
  • 1 items
  • 976 items Explore
  • 812 items
  • 95 items
  • 27 items
  • 107 items
  • 37,389 items Explore
  • 1 items
  • 3,881 items Explore
  • 1,528 items Explore
  • 403 items
  • 125 items Explore
  • 10,424 items Explore
  • 9,684 items Explore
  • 4 items
  • 1 items
  • 38 items
  • 3 items
  • 4 items
  • 6,777 items Explore
  • 7,364 items Explore
  • 4,632 items Explore
  • 1,910 items Explore
  • 1,194 items Explore
  • 23,713 items Explore
  • 3,626 items Explore
  • 17 items
  • 5 items
  • 334 items
  • 1 items
  • 1 items
  • 3,360 items Explore
  • 23 items Explore
  • 374 items Explore
  • 796 items Explore
  • 1,093 items Explore
  • 514 items Explore
  • 1,146 items Explore
  • 89 items
  • 125 items Explore
  • 6,955 items Explore
  • 76 items
  • 310 items
  • 4 items
  • 2 items
  • 63 items
  • 2 items
  • 2,909 items Explore
  • 1,582 items Explore
  • 203 items
  • 90 items
  • 22,188 items Explore
  • 1,289 items Explore
  • 138 items
  • 847 items Explore
  • 32 items
  • 1 items
  • 130 items Explore
  • 40 items
  • 20 items
  • 252 items
  • 313 items
  • 685 items Explore
  • 346 items Explore
  • 2,429 items
  • 2,544 items
  • 3 items
  • 1 items
  • 1 items
  • 4,394 items Explore
  • 40,349 items Explore
  • 1 items
  • 3,293 items Explore
  • 275 items Explore
  • 8,748 items Explore
  • 31 items
  • 25 items
  • 304 items Explore
  • 777 items Explore
  • 3 items
  • 65 items
  • 161 items
  • 50 items
  • 52 items
  • 23,408 items Explore
  • 916 items
  • 66 items
  • 22,644 items Explore
  • 2 items
  • 2,337 items Explore
  • 1 items
  • 1,028 items Explore
  • 4 items
  • 759 items
  • 499 items
  • 4 items
  • 3,308 items Explore
  • 179 items
  • 59 items
  • 454 items Explore
  • 3 items
  • 21 items
  • 90 items Explore
  • 76 items
  • 281 items Explore
  • 1 items
  • 6 items
  • 128 items
  • 295 items
  • 447 items
  • 288 items
  • 1 items
  • 906 items Explore
  • 272 items Explore
  • 4 items
  • 11,295 items Explore
  • 755 items Explore
  • 6,032 items Explore
  • 2 items
  • 8,298 items Explore
  • 27 items
  • 1 items
  • 5,977 items Explore
  • 4 items
  • 3,725 items Explore
  • 9,182 items Explore
  • 7,885 items Explore
  • 185 items
  • 19 items
  • 144 items
  • 7 items
  • 853 items Explore
  • 19 items
  • 8 items
  • 1,096 items Explore
  • 269 items
  • 1 items
  • 2,063 items
  • 3,522 items Explore
  • 695 items Explore
  • 18 items
  • 134 items
  • 6,744 items Explore
  • 93 items
  • 18,938 items Explore
  • 3,136 items Explore
  • 3 items
  • 7 items
  • 10,979 items Explore
  • 37 items
  • 2 items
  • 21,544 items Explore
  • 35 items
  • 13,291 items Explore
  • 3,462 items Explore
  • 5,670 items Explore
  • 33 items
  • 50,825 items Explore
  • 2 items
  • 634 items Explore
  • 417 items
  • 26,880 items Explore
  • 216 items
  • 3 items
  • 6 items
  • 1 items
  • 35 items
  • 27 items
  • 445 items Explore
  • 636 items
  • 209 items Explore
  • 13 items
  • 13,667 items Explore
  • 1,360 items Explore
  • 3 items
  • 10,260 items
  • 9 items
  • 10 items
  • 14 items
  • 25 items
  • 1 items
  • 4,524 items Explore
  • 913 items Explore
  • 1 items
  • 1 items
  • 314 items
  • 502 items Explore
  • 42 items
  • 2,286 items Explore
  • 1,664 items Explore
  • 15 items
  • 1,876 items Explore
  • 150 items
  • 81 items
  • 766 items Explore
  • 3,134 items Explore
  • 44 items
  • 17 items
  • 12 items
  • 10,667 items Explore
  • 23,431 items Explore
  • 3 items
  • 1 items
  • 41 items
  • 1,374 items
  • 179 items Explore
  • 8 items
  • 84 items
  • 1 items
  • 13,583 items Explore
  • 3,582 items Explore
  • 2,904 items Explore
  • 4,798 items Explore
  • 22 items
  • 30 items
  • 6,910 items Explore
  • 4,841 items Explore
  • 256 items Explore
  • 2,300 items Explore
  • 2,978 items Explore
  • 2 items
  • 1,897 items Explore
  • 193 items
  • 223 items Explore
  • 466 items Explore
  • 6,118 items Explore
  • 8,729 items Explore
  • 1,860 items Explore
  • 3 items
  • 1 items
  • 5,825 items Explore
  • 3,354 items Explore
  • 11,126 items Explore
  • 1 items
  • 84 items
  • 11 items
  • 2,436 items Explore
  • 7 items
  • 23 items
  • 51 items
  • 6 items
  • 1 items
  • 4,249 items Explore
  • 611 items Explore
  • 72 items
  • 17 items
  • 154 items Explore
  • 1 items
  • 95 items Explore
  • 460 items
  • 996 items Explore
  • 3,553 items Explore
  • 4 items
  • 5 items
  • 2 items
  • 9,493 items Explore
  • 48 items Explore
  • 3 items
  • 7 items
  • 42 items
  • 3 items
  • 13,790 items Explore
  • 1,161 items Explore
  • 92 items
  • 10,561 items Explore
  • 1,920 items
  • 18 items
  • 6,835 items Explore
  • 21 items
  • 12,950 items Explore
  • 1,418 items Explore
  • 8 items
  • 6,172 items Explore
  • 14,892 items Explore
  • 4 items
  • 1,667 items Explore
  • 181 items Explore
  • 4 items
  • 15 items
  • 5,686 items Explore
  • 12,284 items Explore
  • 48 items
  • 25 items
  • 2 items
  • 3 items
  • 7,216 items Explore
  • 357 items Explore
  • 13 items
  • 6 items
  • 103 items Explore
  • 7 items
  • 5 items
  • 485 items
  • 667 items Explore
  • 8,371 items Explore
  • 58 items
  • 7,347 items Explore
  • 5 items
  • 26 items
  • 4,615 items Explore
  • 428 items
  • 339 items Explore
  • 12,715 items Explore
  • 55 items
  • 20 items
  • 7 items
  • 4 items
  • 325 items Explore
  • 427 items
  • 458 items
  • 3,704 items Explore
  • 27 items
  • 1,238 items Explore
  • 2,503 items Explore
  • 733 items Explore
  • 36 items
  • 1,136 items Explore
  • 97 items Explore
  • 24 items
  • 228 items Explore
  • 80,042 items Explore
  • 1 items
  • 3,139 items Explore
  • 2,874 items Explore
  • 25 items
  • 5,349 items Explore
  • 1,831 items Explore
  • 4 items
  • 17,514 items Explore
  • 4,930 items Explore
  • 1 items
  • 7 items
  • 631 items Explore
  • 85 items
  • 31 items
  • 1 items
  • 76 items
  • 29 items
  • 86 items
  • 3 items
  • 1,176 items Explore
  • 109 items
  • 805 items
  • 12,462 items Explore
  • 27 items
  • 13 items
  • 1,709 items Explore
  • 214 items
  • 17,037 items Explore
  • 85 items
  • 17 items
  • 1 items
  • 8 items
  • 324 items
  • 2 items
  • 626 items Explore
  • 1,597 items Explore
  • 8 items
  • 1,130 items Explore
  • 376 items
  • 2 items
  • 331 items

Select a time period

Or choose a specific year

Clear all filters

Diana the Huntress

French School

Category

Art / Sculpture

Date

circa 1800 - 1820

Materials

Gilt-bronze and marble

Measurements

535 mm (Height)

Place of origin

Paris

Order this image

Collection

Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire

NT 514993

Summary

Gilt-bronze, Diana the Huntress, French School, after the antique, c. 1800-20. A gilt-bronze figure of Diana the Huntress, wearing a short chiton dress, tied at the waist. She strides forward, accompanied by a leaping stag, and is in the act of pulling an arrow from her quiver to fit into her bow, held in her outstretched left hand. On a circular gilt-bronze base, mounted on a socle made of breccia nuvolata and verde antico marble. A pair to a figure of the Apollo Belvedere (NT 514994).

Full description

A pair with the similar figure of the Apollo Belvedere (NT 514994). The two children of Jupiter and the nymph Latona, Apollo and Diana were among the twelve major gods of Olympus. Diana was variously goddess of the earth and the moon, often personified as a virgin huntress, roaming the forests. This statuette is closely based on one of the most famous antique images of the goddess, the marble statue known as the Diana of Versailles, which is first recorded at the Chateau of Fontainebleau in 1586, but was moved to the Louvre in Paris in 1602 (Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny, Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500–1900, New Haven/London 1981, pp. 196-98, no. 30, fig. 102). Subsequently Louis XIV had it transferred to Versailles, but it was brought back to Paris at the Revolution, becoming one of the highlights of the Musée Central des Arts (later to become the Musée Napoléon, and then the Musée du Louvre), which opened in 1800. Now known to be a Roman copy of an original by the Greek fourth-century B.C. sculptor Leochares, the Diana was one of very few ancient marble statues outside Italy which had a reputation equivalent to the treasures of Classical art to be seen in Rome. It was frequently copied, at full size (e.g. by Barthélemy Prieur, bronze, 1605, Chateau of Fontainebleau; Hubert le Sueur, bronze, 1634, Windsor Castle) and more frequently on a small scale in a variety of media, especially from the second half of the eighteenth century. From an early date the Diana was paired with the Apollo Belvedere, both in writings on classical sculpture and as copies such as the present pair of statuettes. This fine pair of Apollo and Diana are characteristic examples of the refined bronzes, often gilded, made during the Empire period. Empire style was especially fashionable during the period c. 1800-15, when Napoleon Bonaparte had himself crowned emperor of the French, although it continued to be popular into the 1820s. Empire style is strongly Neo-classical, taking its inspiration from the art of ancient Greece and Rome, but interpreting it in an extremely pure and refined manner, as can be seen from this pair of bronze statuettes – see for example the little head on one end of Diana’s bow. The statuette copies the marble original closely, with just two major differences; in the Roman marble the body of the deer emerges from a tree trunk needed as a support for the marble figure, whereas in the bronze no support is necessary and the animal is depicted in its entirety; the bow is missing in the ancient marble. Both the Diana and the Apollo Belvedere, which had been taken from the Vatican by the French in 1797, were on show in Paris in the Musée Napoléon during the period 1800-15, when the fame of both the statues would have ensured strong demand for small paired versions. A very similar figure of Diana is seen mounted on an Empire clock, probably made by the Paris firm of Feuchère and Fossey around 1825, recorded in a lithograph (Hans Ottomeyer and Peter Pröschek, eds., Vergoldete Bronzen. Die Bronzearbeiten des Spätbarock und Klassizismus, 2 vols., Munich 1986, I, p. 398, fig. 5.18.14). Jeremy Warren 2019

Provenance

Bequeathed to the National Trust by Huttleston Rogers Broughton, 1st Lord Fairhaven (1896-1966) with the house and the rest of the contents.

Credit line

Anglesey Abbey, The Fairhaven Collection (The National Trust)

Makers and roles

French School, sculptor

References

Christie, Manson & Woods 1971: The National Trust, Anglesey Abbey, Cambridge. Inventory: Furniture, Textiles, Porcelain, Bronzes, Sculpture and Garden Ornaments’, 1971, p. 140.

View more details