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Ancient/Classical History/Identify a Greek relief

Expert: Maria - 1/30/2009

Question

Maria, I know that your expertise is in history and not art, but I have tried other experts and none ave been able to help, none seem to have knowledge of Greek art or history. I hope that you may be able to help.
I have a bas-relief from the Barbedienne Foundry dated 1859. It is a scene of 6 Greek women hunters with bows and arrows. I have tried a lot of Greek and Roman history sites as well as art sites, but no luck. It could be Artemis or Atlanta or muses, not sure, any help in identification would be a appreciated.
Thank You, I have attached a picture.

Answer
Hello,

I think that this bas-relief shows Diana (Greek, Artemis), the Roman virgin goddess of hunting,nature, animals, together her followers who are represented as women hunters with bows and arrows.

Diana (sometimes identified with Selene, goddess of the moon),is the seated female figure with a garland of flowers in her left hand, while the right one is hugging a deer, her sacred animal.

The background is a wood which is symbolized by the trunk of a tree on the right of the bas-relief.

All the women hunters were virgins as Diana was traditionally associated with chastity and was very protective of her purity, so that she gave grave punishment to any man who attempted to dishonor her or her women followers.

Hope this suggestion can be helpful to you.

Best regards,
Maria
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See at :
http://www.trocadero.com/andysculpturegallery/items/691535/en1.html
http://www.trocadero.com/andysculpturegallery/items/691535/en2.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DianaLouvre.jpg
http://www.pantheon.org/articles/a/artemis.html
http://www.pantheon.org/articles/d/diana.html

Questioner's Rating

Rating(1-10)	Knowledgeability = 10	Clarity of Response = 10	Politeness = 10
Comment	Maria answered my questions and included websites for further investigation. Very very informative and a great help. Thank You so much.