Diana, Goddess of the Hunt
Willem van Mieris(Leiden 1662 – 1747 Leiden)

1686
oil on panel
18 x 14.4 cm
signed and dated in dark paint, lower rightcorner: “W. V. Mieris. Fet. 1686”
WM-101© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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How to cite
Buvelot, Quentin. “Diana, Goddess of the Hunt” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 3rd ed. Edited by Arthur K.
Wheelock Jr. and Lara Yeager-Crasselt. New York, 2020–23. https://www.theleidencollection.com/archive/ (archivedDecember 2023).
A PDF of every version of this entry is available in this Online Catalogue's Archive, and the Archive is managed by apermanent URL. New versions are added only when a substantive change to the narrative occurs.

Frans van Mieris the Elder (1635–81) trained his sons Jan (1660–90) and Willem in

Comparative Figures

the fijnschilder tradition. Unfortunately, Jan died at a young age in Rome before heproduced many works, but Willem continued to paint well into the eighteenth
century. His works, which are rather slick in execution, were in great demand andfetched high prices. He painted many of the same subjects as his father, but he also
produced many history pieces and, after 1700, kitchen and shop scenes. These pieces,with their Gerrit Dou–like stone window framing devices (fig 1), were fairly oldfashioned by this time, though they were still popular with collectors.[1]Willem van Mieris painted this work in 1686 when he was about 24 years old. Here, awoman dressed à l’antique in a gold-colored robe with a red sash stands before an
idealized hilly, wooded landscape opening up to ruins and a distant mountain. VanMieris effectively used the muted tonalities of this evocative Arcadian landscape toset off the woman’s light-filled and sensual form. The delicacy of the artist’s painterly

Fig 1. Attributed to Willem van
Mieris, A Man Drinking and a Woman
Offering Him a Fish, undated, oil onpanel, 34 x 29 cm, private collection

touch, so reminiscent of that of his father (see FM-103), is particularly evident in theshimmering blue of her scarf (fig 2) and in the individual brushstrokes that model theblue and white ostrich feathers in her hair.
The woman is without doubt meant to represent Diana, the goddess of the hunt, whois also known by her Greek name Artemis. Although the painter omitted the crescentmoon, Diana’s primary attribute, she is depicted holding an arrow taken from theFig 2. Detail of scarf from WM-101

quiver lying on the rocky ledge before her. In Van Mieris’s day, Diana was associatedwith elegance and purity. The latter association may be somewhat surprising, as thewoman’s plunging décolleté reveals a nipple that gives the painting an eroticcharge.[2] It is not known whether this painting had a pendant, but the gaze of the© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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goddess would seem to suggest that there was one, probably Diana’s twin brother,
Apollo, the patron god of music and poetry.[3]At first glance, this scene with Diana appears to be a portrait historié, a painting inwhich a real person is depicted as a historical, biblical, or mythological figure, but
this is far from certain.[4] The painting was described as a portrait historié as early as
1842, when the English dealer John Smith published it as “A Young Lady, in thecharacter of Diana.” Smith’s description was paraphrased in a Paris sales catalogue
only two years later,[5] and the notion that the painting is a portrait historié hasappeared frequently in the literature.[6] Diana’s face, however, lacks the kind ofindividualized features seen in Van Mieris’s female portraits.[7] Her doll-like face withits double chin and thick neck resembles that of other stereotypical female figures inVan Mieris’s history paintings, as in his painting The Repentant Mary Magdalene,Fig 3. Willem van Mieris, The
Repentant Mary Magdalene, 1709, oilon panel, 20.3 x 15.7 cm, present
location unknown

1701 (fig 3). As Junko Aono has noted, Van Mieris’s paintings are populated byhighly idealized women with “marble-like smooth skin, graceful poses and gestures
and an almost sculpted classical profile.”[8] Van Mieris used panels of almost the same
size to paint other scenes of women from history, including a painting of Mary
Magdalene dated 1709, in which the saint, like Diana here, is portrayed looking to theleft in front of an idealized landscape.[9]Portrait historié or not, this small jewel-like panel painting, which measures only 18
by 14.4 centimeters, is an exquisite example of Willem van Mieris’s skillful handlingof paint at the beginning of his career. The smooth, blended brushstrokes he used tomodel the ivory-colored flesh tones and bolder touches he applied to accent thewoman’s elegant wardrobe are techniques that helped establish his reputation as oneof the finest painters of his day.

- Quentin Buvelot, 2017

© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Diana, Goddess of the Hunt
Page 4 of 8Endnotes
1. A monograph on the artist is still a desideratum. For literature on Van Mieris, see the references listed inJunko Aono, “Imitation and Innovation: Dutch Genre Painting 1680–1750 and Its Reception of theGolden Age” (PhD diss. University of Amsterdam, 2011), 174.
2. This pictorial motif had been introduced earlier in Dutch seventeenth-century painting; see Marlies
Enklaar in Peter Schoon and Sander Paarlberg, eds., Greek Gods and Heroes in the Age of Rubens andRembrandt (Exh. cat. Athens, National Gallery—Museum Alexandros Soutzos and Netherlands Institute;
Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum) (Athens, 2000), 368 n. 1.
3. See Marlies Enklaar in Peter Schoon and Sander Paarlberg, eds., Greek Gods and Heroes in the Age ofRubens and Rembrandt (Exh. cat. Athens, National Gallery—Museum Alexandros Soutzos andNetherlands Institute; Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum) (Athens, 2000), 256.
4. See Rose Wishnevsky, “Studien zum ‘portrait historié’ in den Niederlanden” (PhD diss., LudwigMaximilians-Universität, Munich, 1967); Eddy de Jongh, Portretten van echt en trouw: Huwelijk en gezin
in de Nederlandse kunst van de zeventiende eeuw (Exh. cat. Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum) (Zwolle,1986), 319–31.
5. John Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters.
9 vols. (London, 1829–42, suppl., 1842), 9:63, no. 34. The catalogue of the sale in Paris, 23 March
1844, no. 10, describes the scene as “Une Dame en costume de chasseresse.” It is known that Van Mieris
made portraits historiés; a drawing of a woman portrayed as Diana was sold in Amsterdam, 9 March
1767, lot 1050 (index cards of Hofstede de Groot, Netherlands Institute for Art History, The Hague:“Het Pourtret van een Dame verbeeldende Diana, met zwart kryd getekend als de voorgaande, door
denzelven [W. Mieres]”).
6. Eric Jan Sluijter, in Peter Schoon and Sander Paarlberg, eds., Greek Gods and Heroes in the Age ofRubens and Rembrandt (Exh. cat. Athens, National Gallery—Museum Alexandros Soutzos andNetherlands Institute; Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum) (Athens, 2000), 62; Dominique Surh, “Portraitof a Woman as Artemis,” in Salomon Lilian Old Masters (sales cat., Amsterdam, Salomon Lilian B. V.)(Zwolle, 2004), 54–55, no. 17.
7. As was convincingly pointed out by Marlies Enklaar in Peter Schoon and Sander Paarlberg, eds., Greek
Gods and Heroes in the Age of Rubens and Rembrandt (Exh. cat. Athens, National Gallery—Museum
Alexandros Soutzos and Netherlands Institute; Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum) (Athens, 2000), 256.
Compare, for example, the face of Diana with the oval pendant portrait of an unknown woman from1706 (copper, 14.3 x 12.5 cm, whereabouts unknown; bought in at sale, Christie’s, Amsterdam, 8 May
2012, lot 50, repr., together with a pendant portrait of the husband; see Cornelis Hofstede de Groot,Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten Höllandischen Maler des XVII.
Jahrhunderts, 10 vols. (Esslingen and Paris, 1907–28), 10:209, 213, nos. 398 and 418). For an© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Diana, Goddess of the Hunt
Page 5 of 8overview of Van Mieris’s portraiture, see the photographs kept at the RKD (Rijksbureau voor
Kunsthistorische Documentatie/Netherlands Institute for Art History).
8. Junko Aono, “Imitation and Innovation: Dutch Genre Painting 1680–1750 and Its Reception of theGolden Age,” (PhD diss. University of Amsterdam, 2011), 173.
9. Panel, 20.3 x 16.2 cm, signed and dated 1709 (formerly read as “1701”), whereabouts unknown;
formerly in the H. Blank collection, Newark, N.J., appeared at sale, Christie’s, London, 3 December
2008, lot 139, repr.; see Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most
Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century Based on the Work of John Smith, ed. and trans.
Edward G. Hawke, 8 vols. (London, 1907–28), originally published as Beschreibendes und kritisches
Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten höllandischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts, 10 vols.
(Esslingen and Paris, 1907–28), 10: no. 37.

Provenance
Private dealer, Paris, 1837.
M. Martini Collection, Paris, by 1837 (his sale, Bonnefons, Paris, 23 March 1844, no. 10 [for 1140francs]).
Private collection, Paris.
(Probably sale, Piasa & E. Madec, Paris, July 1997).
[Haboldt & Co., Paris].
[Artemis Fine Arts S. A., London, 2000–1; Salomon Lilian B. V., Amsterdam, 2004].
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2004.

Exhibition HistoryAthens, National Gallery/Alexandros Soutzos Museum and Netherlands Institute, “Greek Gods andHeroes in the Age of Rubens and Rembrandt,” 28 September 2000–8 January 2001, no. 50; Dordrecht,Dordrechts Museum, 3 February–8 May 2001, no. 50 [lent by London, Artemis Fine Arts S. A.].
Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art, “Small Treasures: Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals, and Their
Contemporaries,” 12 October 2014–4 January 2015; Birmingham, Birmingham Museum of Art, 1February–26 April 2015, no. 26 [lent by the present owner].
Beijing, National Museum of China, “Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces from The LeidenCollection,” 17 June–3 September 2017 [lent by the present owner].
© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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Shanghai, Long Museum, West Bund, “Rembrandt, Vermeer and Hals in the Dutch Golden Age:
Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection,” 23 September 2017–25 February 2018 [lent by the presentowner].
Poughkeepsie, New York, “Changing Forms: Metamorphosis in Myth, Art, and Nature 1650–1700,” 28
September–19 December 2021, no. 18 [lent by the present owner].
Amsterdam, Hermitage Amsterdam, “Rembrandt and his Contemporaries: History Paintings from The
Leiden Collection,” 4 February–27 August 2023, no. 21 [lent by the present owner].

References
Smith, John. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French
Painters. 9 vols. London, 1829–42, suppl., 1842, 9: 63, no. 34.
Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of
the Seventeenth Century Based on the Work of John Smith. Edited and t ranslated by Edward G. Hawke,
10: 212, no. 412. 8 vols. London, 1907–28. Originally published as Beschreibendes und kritischesVerzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten höllandischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts. 10 vols.
Esslingen and Paris, 1907–28.
Sluijter, Eric Jan. “Artemis.” In Greek Gods and Heroes in the Age of Rubens and Rembrandt. Edited byPeter Schoon and Sander Paarlberg, 62. Exh. cat. Exh. cat. Athens, National Gallery–Museum
Alexandros Soutzos and Netherlands Institute; Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum. Athens, 2000.
Enklaar, Marlies. “Artemis.” In Greek Gods and Heroes in the Age of Rubens and Rembrandt. Edited byPeter Schoon and Sander Paarlberg, 256–57, no. 50. Exh. cat. Athens, National Gallery–Museum
Alexandros Soutzos and Netherlands Institute; Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum. Athens, 2000.
Surh, Dominique. “Portrait of a Woman as Artemis.” In Salomon Lilian Old Masters. Sales cat.
Amsterdam, Salomon Lilian B.V. Zwolle, 2004, 54–55, no. 17.
Weller, Dennis P. “Portrait of a Woman as Artemis.” In Small Treasures: Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals,and Their Contemporaries. Exh. cat. Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art; Birmingham, Birmingham
Museum of Art. Raleigh, 2014, 146-49, no. 26.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Diana, Goddess of the Hunt.” In Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces fromThe Leiden Collection. Edited by Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 104, no. 42, 182, no. 42. Translated by Li Ying.
Exh. cat. Beijing, National Museum of China. Beijing, 2017.
Long Museum, West Bund. Rembrandt, Vermeer and Hals in the Dutch Golden Age: Masterpieces fromThe Leiden Collection. Exh. cat. Shanghai, Long Museum, West Bund. Shanghai, 2017, 124–25.
Nogrady, Elizabeth and Lara Yeager-Crasselt. Changing Forms: Metamorphosis in Myth, Art, and Nature
1650–1700. Exh. cat. Poughkeepsie, New York, The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College.
Poughkeepsie, New York, 2021, 48, no. 18.
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Nogrady, Elizabeth. “Strange Changes: Early modern Scientific Imagery of Metamorphosis and Myth.”
In Changing Forms: Metamorphosis in Myth, Art, and Nature 1650–1700. Edited by Elizabeth Nogradyand Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 35, no. 18. Exh. cat. Poughkeepsie, New York, The Frances Lehman Loeb
Art Center, Vassar College. Poughkeepsie, New York, 2021.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “The Rules of Ovid: Myth, Classicism, and Metamorphosis in the Late
Seventeenth-Century Netherlands.” In Changing Forms: Metamorphosis in Myth, Art, and Nature
1650–1700. Edited by Elizabeth Nogrady and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 27–28, 30–31, no. 18. Exh. cat.
Poughkeepsie, New York, The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College. Poughkeepsie, NewYork, 2021.
Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr., Christiaan Vogelaar, and Caroline van Cauwenberge. Rembrandt and His
Contemporaries: History Paintings from The Leiden Collection. Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Hermitage
Amsterdam. Zwolle, 2023, 96–99, no. 21. [Exhibition catalogue also published in Dutch.]

Technical Summary
The support, a single plank of vertically grained, rectangular oak with bevels on all four sides, is unthinned
and uncradled.[1] All four outer edges of the panel reverse have been routed 1 cm in width and 0.5 cm into
the panel’s thickness. Adhesive residue and wood remnants along the routed surfaces suggest wood additions
have been removed. The panel reverse has a few small remnants of paper tape or paper labels but no wax
seals, import stamps or panel maker’s mark.
Gero Seelig, from the Staatliches Museum Schwerin, Germany, held a symposium at the 2011 CODART
meeting regarding the unusual construction of three-panel paintings from that collection, one by Willem van
Mieris. According to Seelig: “In all three, a smaller panel is inlaid into a larger one so that only the front
surface of the smaller one—surrounded by the surface of the larger panel—shows. The actual painting
extends over both surfaces. Art historians have automatically assumed that this construction is a later
alteration of the original panel. However, conservators can demonstrate that this is not the case. Nevertheless,in the past the supposed ‘enlargement’ was removed.” [2] Further investigation is required to determine what
modification this panel may have undergone.
A light-colored ground has been thinly and evenly applied followed by paint applied smoothly in successive
thin layers of transparent glazing with slightly raised low brushmarking along the tree foliage, blue plumes
and drapery folds, as well as along the quivers and the blue outline and details of the quiver case.
No underdrawing is readily apparent in infrared images captured at 780–1000 nanometers. The images reveal
a compositional change along the blue sash above the figure’s proper left hand, which was shifted higher
during the paint stage.
The painting is signed and dated in dark paint along the lower right corner.
The painting has not undergone conservation treatment since its acquisition and remains in a good state of© 2024 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Diana, Goddess of the Hunt
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Technical Summary Endnotes

1. The characterization of the wood is based on visual examination of the X-radiograph and panel reverse
images by Ian Tyers. According to Tyers, the panel has good potential for dendrochronology.
2. From CODART’s website.

© 2024 The Leiden Collection