Seated figure of Diana the huntress
Medium
Etching, drypoint and engraving added by Paulus Pontius; fourth state of four
Dimensions
Sheet: 8 1/4 × 6 1/8 in. (21 × 15.5 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1951
Accession Number
51.501.1408
Tags
Art Historical Context
Behold the *Seated Figure of Diana the Huntress a exquisite 17th-century print through the collaboration of three masterful artists: designed by Flemish painter Pieter van Avont etched by Bohemian virtuoso Wenceslaus Hollar and refined with drypoint and engraving by Paulusius around 1644–52. This fourth and final state captures the Roman goddess of the hunt in a poised, seated pose amid trees, accompanied by her loyal dogs—and intriguingly, musical instruments, blending mythology with unexpected pastoral leisure. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department, it mea...
About the Artist
Wenceslaus Hollar|Pieter van Avont|Paulus Pontius · 1607–1677
Wenceslaus Hollar (1607-1677) was a prolific Bohemian etcher who became one of the most accomplished printmakers of the seventeenth century. Born in Prague, he trained under Matthäus Merian in Frankfurt before entering the service of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, in 1636. Hollar spent most of his career in England, where he produced approximately 2,740 etchings documenting an extraordinary range...