Isis and Artemis as nature upScience unveiling Nature in the frontispiece to Anatome Animalum, 1681 Several other sources influenced the motif of the veiled Isis. One was a tradition that linked Isis with nature and the goddess Artemis. European art has a long tradition of personifying nature as a motherly figure. Starting in the 16th century, this motif was influenced by the iconography of the goddess Artemis of Ephesus (also known under the name of her Roman equivalent, Diana). The Ephesian Artemis was depicted with round protuberances on her chest that may originally have been jewelry but came to be interpreted as breasts. Isis was sometimes compared with Artemis, and the Roman writer Macrobius, in the fourth century CE, wrote, "Isis is the earth or nature that is under the sun. That is why the goddess's entire body bristles with a multitude of breasts placed close to one another [as in the case of Artemis of Ephesus], because all things are nourished by earth or by nature." Thus, the 16th-century artists represented nature as Isis-Artemis with multiple breasts. Hadot 2006, pp. 233–238 A second influence was a tradition that nature is mysterious. It goes back to an aphorism by the Greek philosopher Heraclitus in the late sixth or early fifth century BCE, which is traditionally translated as "Nature loves to hide." Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene in the 1590s personified nature as a woman with a veil, though without a direct connection to Isis, Hadot 2006, p. 237 although Isis appears elsewhere in the work. Quentin 2012, pp. 145–146 Several illustrators in the 17th century used the anonymous woman with a veil in the same way. In the 1650s, Athanasius Kircher's Oedipus Aegyptiacus explicitly explained Isis's veil as an emblem of the secrets of nature. Hadot 2006, pp. 237, 240–242 The frontispiece to Gerhard Blasius's 1681 book Anatome Animalum, engraved by Jan Luyken, was the first depiction of a many-breasted Isis-Artemis figure with her veil being removed. It shows a personification of science removing the veil, as an allegory for the way science uncovers nature's secrets. This metaphor was reused in the frontispieces of many of Antonie van Leeuwenhoek's works, and then in illustrations to other scientific works throughout the 18th century. In some cases the veiled figure is a statue, reminiscent of the original statue of Artemis at Ephesus, while in others it is a living woman. The motif was sometimes elaborated with other metaphors, so that, for example, in the frontispiece to The Philosophy of Nature by Jean-Baptiste-Claude Delisle de Sales, Nature unveils herself to a philosopher as he overthrows Despotism and Superstition. The unveiling of the Isis-figure thus expressed the hope, prevalent during the Age of Enlightenment, that philosophy and science would triumph over unreason to uncover nature's deepest truths. This motif continued beyond the Enlightenment into the 19th century. An example is Louis-Ernest Barrias's 1899 sculpture Nature Unveiling Herself Before Science, in which the multiple breasts are omitted and the Isis-figure wears a scarab on her gown that hints at her Egyptian background. Hadot 2006, pp. 1, 237–243
Isis and Artemis as nature upScience unveiling Nature in the frontispiece to Anatome Animalum, 1681 Several other sources influenced the motif of the veiled Isis. One was a tradition that linked Isis with nature and the goddess Artemis. European art has a long tradition of personifying nature as a motherly figure. Starting in the 16th century, this motif was influenced by the iconography of the goddess Artemis of Ephesus (also known under the name of her Roman equivalent, Diana). The Ephesian Artemis was depicted with round protuberances on her chest that may originally have been jewelry but came to be interpreted as breasts. Isis was sometimes compared with Artemis, and the Roman writer Macrobius, in the fourth century CE, wrote, "Isis is the earth or nature that is under the sun. That is why the goddess's entire body bristles with a multitude of breasts placed close to one another [as in the case of Artemis of Ephesus], because all things are nourished by earth or by nature." Thus, the 16th-century artists represented nature as Isis-Artemis with multiple breasts. A second influence was a tradition that nature is mysterious. It goes back to an aphorism by the Greek philosopher Heraclitus in the late sixth or early fifth century BCE, which is traditionally translated as "Nature loves to hide." Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene in the 1590s personified nature as a woman with a veil, though without a direct connection to Isis, although Isis appears elsewhere in the work. Several illustrators in the 17th century used the anonymous woman with a veil in the same way. In the 1650s, Athanasius Kircher's Oedipus Aegyptiacus explicitly explained Isis's veil as an emblem of the secrets of nature. The frontispiece to Gerhard Blasius's 1681 book Anatome Animalum, engraved by Jan Luyken, was the first depiction of a many-breasted Isis-Artemis figure with her veil being removed. It shows a personification of science removing the veil, as an allegory for the way science uncovers nature's secrets. This metaphor was reused in the frontispieces of many of Antonie van Leeuwenhoek's works, and then in illustrations to other scientific works throughout the 18th century. In some cases the veiled figure is a statue, reminiscent of the original statue of Artemis at Ephesus, while in others it is a living woman. The motif was sometimes elaborated with other metaphors, so that, for example, in the frontispiece to The Philosophy of Nature by Jean-Baptiste-Claude Delisle de Sales, Nature unveils herself to a philosopher as he overthrows Despotism and Superstition. The unveiling of the Isis-figure thus expressed the hope, prevalent during the Age of Enlightenment, that philosophy and science would triumph over unreason to uncover nature's deepest truths. This motif continued beyond the Enlightenment into the 19th century. An example is Louis-Ernest Barrias's 1899 sculpture Nature Unveiling Herself Before Science, in which the multiple breasts are omitted and the Isis-figure wears a scarab on her gown that hints at her Egyptian background. 
D
Hadot 2006, pp. 233–238
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Hadot 2006, p. 237
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Quentin 2012, pp. 145–146
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Hadot 2006, pp. 237, 240–242
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Hadot 2006, pp. 1, 237–243