Allegorical Portrait of a Lady of Quality as Diana the Huntress, 18th Century Style
This magnificent portrait of a lady of quality dates from the 18th century. A young woman is dressed in a sumptuous azure gown enhanced by a wide gold cloak, while sporting a Fontange hairstyle, very fashionable at court.
This elaborate hairstyle takes its name from the Marquise de Fontange, a favorite of Louis XIV, who, during a royal hunt, having lost her ribbon, used her garter to gather her disheveled hair, thus captivating the Sun King and launching a fashion that would dominate Europe for more than twenty years.
Here, she is depicted seated in a landscape, assuming the characteristic pose of Diana the Huntress, resting her hand on the head of a hunting dog, while her attributes are arranged at her sides, including a quiver full of arrows. This painting belongs to the iconographic tradition of the historiated portrait, which consists of representing contemporary figures with the features of deities from classical mythology in order to imbue them with moral virtues or symbolic qualities associated with the chosen goddess. The representation as Diana here embodies not only beauty and eternal youth but also values of chastity and nobility linked to the practice of hunting, an aristocratic privilege.
France
Early 19th century
Dimensions:
With frame: 125 cm x 105 cm
Without frame: 108 cm x 87 cm
