A Roman bronze figure of Diana, circa 2nd-3rd century AD
Height: 13.2 cm, not including the modern base
Provenance: UK private collection, Hertfordshire, formed in the 1970s-90s
Depicting the maiden goddess Diana (Artemis), her right arm reaching back to take an arrow from her quiver, her bow in her left arm. The goddess stands in contrapposto looking to her left, wearing her short chiton belted under her bust, with tall sandals.
Diana, who was known as Artemis in the Greek pantheon, was the Roman goddess of the hunt, and the moon, often depicted alongside animals such as stags or hunting dogs. She is generally portrayed carrying her attributes of a bow and quiver of arrows. See "Artemis/Diana," LIMC, vol. II, 1984
As a fertility deity she was also invoked by women to aid conception and delivery. The most important sanctuary of Diana for the ancient Romans was located at Aricia, some eleven miles outside of Rome on the shore of lake Nemi, which was known as the speculum Dianae (mirror of Diana).
