Description:
Image of goddess Diana. Right arm is outstretched and holds a bow. Her head is turned towards right arm. Left arm is by waist and has a basket with arrow strapped to forearm. Right leg is pulled back and uplifted. Figure wears classical robe that is fastened over the left shoulder. A bird with an arrow through its chest lies at her feet, upside down with its wings outstretched.
Label Text:
This athletic woman who has just shot an arrow at an invisible prey is Diana, the classical Roman goddess of the hunt. Gasq’s depiction of the goddess is part of a long and popular sculptural tradition that began in ancient art. Diana is typically portrayed as a youthful woman in pursuit of her victim, and although she is traditionally not depicted in the nude, here her fluttering tunic reveals the outlines of her body. The smooth surface of the bronze barely shows any trace of the artist’s hand, and remnants of gilding are still visible. Originally, the sculpture stood on a manually revolving marble pedestal.
-Supriya Sudan, University of Massachussetts Amherst MA Candidate, Department of the History of Art & Architecture
A Very Long Engagement: Nineteenth-Century Sculpture and Its Afterlives (July 29, 2017 - May 27, 2018)
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=MH+1957.1.M.OI |
