"diane And Her Suite", 17th Century

“Diana the Huntress and her retinue”, oil on canvas. Diana is originally a Latin goddess with power over procreation, childbirth, hunting and sovereignty. She quickly became the goddess of the hunt and the moon in Roman mythology. The representation of Diana as a huntress appears in Greek art. She is then seen as a chaste and proud goddess, represented in hunting clothes armed with a bow. Its representation has changed little over time. In the 16th century, representations of Diana the Huntress always showed her semi-naked, often accompanied by a dog and a bow. It was from this period that the women of the Court were represented as Diana, wearing the attributes of the goddess. Diane de Poitiers, mistress of Henry II, was often portrayed as Diana the Huntress, fully dressed in the style of the goddess or dressed in 16th century fashion with a crescent moon on her forehead. Other great ladies of the Court, most often favorites, had themselves painted with the attributes of the goddess. Diana's arrows symbolize the great power of women at court at that time. It is really as Diana the huntress and predator that they are represented. Our Diana is surrounded by two women dressed in Turkish dress and a putto whistling a horn to start the hunt. The lace on Diana's dress is characteristic of 17th century France because it is large relief lace from Alençon, the production of which began with Colbert in Alençon to compete with the very fine lace from Venice. The two women with turbans are reminiscent of Flemish painting and in particular of Vermeer's young "girl with a pearl earring". Women dressed in Turkish style, emanating from the orientalist movement which developed in decoration and interior architecture between the 16th and 18th centuries. Indeed, on the borders of Europe, the Ottoman Empire, of which Turkey is the central point, appears to be the only one able to compete with the European powers, culturally and militarily. At the end of the 17th century, in Europe, the terror that the Turks had long inspired gradually gave way to real fascination. Travel stories devoted to Ottoman territories, translations of literary works such as “The Thousand and One Nights” will inspire artists with a fabulous vision of this distant world. Height: 100 cm
Width: 84 cm
Italy
17th century