Large Marble Bust, Diane De Poitiers, 19th C.

Large marble bust (Carrara?), height 0.81m, representing Diane de Poitiers. French school, around 1880. The sculptor was inspired here by the fountain of the Château d'Anet, now preserved in the Louvre Museum, attributed to Benvenuto Cellini, then to Germain Pilon, but it was indeed Jean Goujon who executed it around 1540-1560. Diane de Poitiers, mistress of King Henry II, is represented there in the guise of the goddess Diane, leaning on a deer. The artist, rather than sculpting her naked, as in the original and as in the bronze by Barbedienne, dresses her in the antique style. Very beautiful effect, accentuated by the quality and polish of the marble which undoubtedly comes from the Carrara quarries in Italy.