Goddess Diana as Moon

CORNELIS CORNELISZ VAN HARLEM (1562-1638) (from);

JACOB MATHAM (1571-1631) (engraving)

Haarlem, ca. 1606-1616.

Laid paper with star filigree with three points together.

Good condition. With margins.

Ref.: Hollstein et al. 1949-2010, dl. 11, no. 200 (J. Matham).

The crescent above the head is the most obvious iconographic attribute linking Artemis/Diana to the moon. Stripped of her emblems of her hunting goddess, in this magnificent engraving Diana is shown to us entirely as a lunar goddess whose light tears the veil of darkness.

Compositionally it is, without a doubt, a scene of singular originality: the goddess, instead of offering herself frontally to the viewer, moves away with her back to us and opening a path through the night, in a game that both shows and hides her imposing nudity. and its mystery.

In the scene lassitude and strength go hand in hand with her. The serene elegance of the gesture contrasting with the drama of dramatically pronounced musculature is undoubtedly one of the characteristic features of flamenco mannerism of which Cornelis Cornelisz van Harlem was one of its most famous exponents.