The ''Diana of Gabii'' is a statue of a woman in drapery which probably represents the goddess

Artemis In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Artemis (; grc-gre, Ἄρτεμις) is the goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, nature, vegetation, childbirth, care of children, and chastity. She was heavily identified wit ...

and is traditionally attributed to the

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

Praxiteles Praxiteles (; el, Πραξιτέλης) of Athens, the son of Cephisodotus the Elder, was the most renowned of the Attica sculptors of the 4th century BC. He was the first to sculpt the nude female form in a life-size statue. While no indubita ...

. It became part of the Borghese collection and is now conserved in the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

with the inventory number Ma 529.

History

The statue was discovered in 1792 by Gavin Hamilton on the property of the Prince

Borghese The House of Borghese is a princely family of Italian noble and papal background, originating as the Borghese or Borghesi in Siena, where they came to prominence in the 13th century and held offices under the ''commune''. During the 16th century, ...

Gabii Gabii was an ancient city of Latium, located due east of Rome along the Via Praenestina, which was in early times known as the ''Via Gabina''. It was on the south-eastern perimeter of an extinct volcanic crater lake, approximately circular ...

, not far from

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

Haskell & Penny, p.218. It was immediately added to the prince's collections. In 1807, suffering from financial difficulties, the Prince was forced to sell the statue to

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

and it was on display in the Louvre from 1820. The statue became very popular in the 19th century; a plaster cast was placed in the

Athenaeum Club, London The Athenaeum is a private members' club in London, founded in 1824. It is primarily a club for men and women with intellectual interests, and particularly (but not exclusively) for those who have attained some distinction in science, engineerin ...

, a marble copy was among the copies of ancient statues produced to decorate the Louvre's central court, and a cast iron replica decorated a fountain in the village of

Grancey-le-Château-Neuvelle Grancey-le-Château-Neuvelle () is a Communes of France, commune in the Côte-d'Or Departments of France, department in eastern France. The castle was built between 1705 and 1725 by Jacques Eléonor Rouxel de Grancey on the location of a medieva ...

in the Côte-d'Or. In addition, replicas of reduced size in terracotta or porcelain were manufactured and sold for art enthusiasts.

Description

The statue represents a young woman of more than life size, standing in drapery. The weight of the body rests on the right leg, supported by a tree stump; the left leg is left free. The left foot is thrown back and the heel slightly raised with the toes turned outward. The statue is generally identified as

, virgin goddess of hunting and the wild, solely on account of her clothing. She wears what is effectively a short chiton with large sleeves, typical of the goddess. The chiton is bound by two belts: one is visible around her waist, the other is hidden, allowing a portion of the fabric to be gathered, shortening the chiton and exposing the knees. The goddess is represented in the process of pinning her cloak on: her right hand holds a

fibula The fibula or calf bone is a leg bone on the lateral side of the tibia, to which it is connected above and below. It is the smaller of the two bones and, in proportion to its length, the most slender of all the long bones. Its upper extremity i ...

and lifts a fold of her clothing on her right shoulder while her left hand lifts another fold of cloth up to chest level. The movement causes the collar of the chiton to fall, leaving the left shoulder exposed. The head is turned slightly to the right, but the goddess is not really focussed on what she is doing. Instead she looks out into space, as is common for statues of the

Second classicism Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for a classical period, classical antiquity in the Western tradition, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. In its purest form, classicism is an aestheti ...

. Her flowing hair is pulled back by a band tied above her neck. This hair is gathered in a bun held by a second ribbon which is not visible.

Attribution

According to

Pausanias Pausanias ( el, Παυσανίας) may refer to: *Pausanias of Athens, lover of the poet Agathon and a character in Plato's ''Symposium'' *Pausanias the Regent, Spartan general and regent of the 5th century BC * Pausanias of Sicily, physician of t ...

created the statue of Artemis of

Brauron Brauron (; grc, Βραυρών) was one of the twelve cities of ancient Attica, but never mentioned as a ''deme'', though it continued to exist down to the latest times. It was situated on or near the eastern coast of Attica, between Steiria and ...

for the Athenian Acropolis. Temple inventories dating from 347/6 BC mention among other things, a "dedicated statue," described as representing the goddess in a ''chitoniskos''. It is also known that the cult practiced for Artemis Brauronia included the consecration of garments offered by girls. Praxiteles' statue has long been connected with the Diana of Gabii: the goddess apparently in the act of putting on the gift of her followers. Furthermore the head resembles that of the

Aphrodite of Cnidus The Aphrodite of Knidos (or Cnidus) was an Ancient Greek sculpture of the goddess Aphrodite created by Praxiteles of Athens around the 4th century BC. It is one of the first life-sized representations of the nude female form in Greek history, d ...

and the Apollo Sauroctonos which are also attributed to Praxiteles. However, the identification has been questioned on several grounds. Firstly, the inventories discovered at Athens have been proven to be copies of those from the sanctuary at Brauron – it is not certain the cult in Athens also involved the dedication of cloaks. In addition, the short chiton is anachronistic for the fourth century BC and instead suggests a Hellenistic date. Finally, a more recent hypothesis connects Praxiteles' statue of Artemis Brauronia with a head in the Museum of the Ancient Agora, known as the Despinis Head. Nevertheless, the Diana of Gabii is of strikingly high quality, and conforms closely to what is commonly considered to be the Praxitelian style, leading some scholars to maintain that the statue is a work of Praxiteles or one of his sons.Rolley, p.262.

Notes

Bibliography

* Aileen Ajootian, « Praxiteles », ''Personal Styles in Greek Sculpture'' (edited by

Olga Palagia Olga Palagia is Professor of Classical Archaeology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and is a leading expert on ancient Greek sculpture. She is known in particular for her work on sculpture in ancient Athens and has edited a ...

& Jerome J. Pollitt), Cambridge University Press, 1998 (1st edition 1996) (), pp. 124–126. * Francis Haskell & Nicholas Penny, "Taste and the Antique. The Lure of Classical Sculpture, 1500–1900," ''Bibliothèque d'archéologie'', 1981 (), no 101, pp. 218–219. * Jean-Luc Martinez, « Praxitèle après Praxitèle », in ''Praxitèle'', catalogue of the Louvre exhibition, 23 March-18 June 2007, éditions du Louvre & Somogy, 2007 (), no. 73, pp. 312–314. * Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway, ''Fourth-Century Styles in Greek Sculpture'', Madison, University of Wisconsin Press, 1997 (), p. 329. *

Claude Rolley Claude Rolley (11 November 1933, Saint-Lô (Manche) – 10 February 2007) was a French archaeologist, ''emeritus'' at the University of Burgundy, writer on art, archaeology of Greece and Gaule. Selected publications * « Une amphore inédite du ...

, ''La Sculpture grecque, vol. II : La période classique, Manuels d'art et d'archéologie antiques'', Picard, 1999 (), p. 262. {{Authority control Sculptures of Artemis Ancient Greek sculpture by period Borghese antiquities Ancient Greek and Roman sculptures of the Louvre Archaeological discoveries in Italy 1792 archaeological discoveries