Italian school, ca. 1700.

Italian school, ca. 1700.
"Diana".
Marble bust.
Rear pedestal.
Presents restorations: headdress, tip of the nose, earlobe, nipple.
Measurements: 64 x 41 x 19 cm.

This bust of Diana (or Artemis, in its Greek name) carved in marble around 1700, is a magnificent example of the neo-baroque revival of mythological sculpture in the transition between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It denotes the virtuosity of Italian High Baroque and Rococo sensualism, evoking both the ideal of beauty inherited from Antiquity and the latent sensuality that characterizes the sculpture of this period. The goddess of the hunt is represented in a contemplative attitude: her gaze is directed upwards, her almond-shaped eyes fixed on an invisible, zenithal point, as if absorbed in a higher vision. The lips, half-open with a suggestive delicacy, are sensually outlined, giving the work a subtle emotional charge, close to baroque pathos. The harmonious oval face has a straight nose, full lips, and a slight dimple in the chin, elements that give the figure a vitality. The hair, treated with exquisite attention to detail, is arranged in wavy curls and ringlets that fall in a carefully modeled updo, from which emerges a tail that descends gracefully over the right shoulder.

The treatment of the bust reveals an outstanding mastery of the marble technique: one of the breasts is uncovered, while the other is barely veiled by a very fine tunic that reveals the nipple, in an effect that refers directly to the famous technique of the "wet drapery", inherited from the school of Phidias and revalued by the sculptors of the Baroque. The folds of the fabric have been executed with skillful draping. The whole captures the tension between divine chastity and earthly sensuality, being a goddess characterized by her virginity and modesty, but also by her overwhelming beauty.