Artemis

ARTUS QUELLINUS (1609-1668) (dessins);

HUBERTUS QUELLINUS (1619-1687) (engraving);

Amsterdam, 1719.

Engraving from: Architecture, peinture et sculpture de la Maison de Ville d’Amsterdam, représentée en CIX figures en taille-douce…, edited by Gerard Valk.

Etching and burin.

Good condition. With margins.

As time went by, the ancient Greeks assimilated the ancient solar god, Helios, with the Olympian Apollo. It is not surprising that the same process occurred with their respective sisters, Selene and Aphrodite.

In these assimilation processes, the goddess receives some of the attributes of her predecessor without abandoning her own. Artemis-Diana is a virginal goddess, protector of hunting, animals and wild lands, propitiator of fertility and mediator of childbirth.

In this way the universe of lunar influences and attributions was enriched with the qualities and powers of the associated divinity, giving our satellite a powerful symbolic presence in the lives of the ancient Greeks.