Artemis2.0314

Jean-Marc Nattier, 1685-1766. "Portrait of Madame Bonnier de la Mosson as Diana (Constance-Gabrielle-Magdeleine du Monciel de Lauraille)" (1742) oil on canvas, unframed 129.5 x 96.8 cm, Brentwood, CA, Getty Center obj. no. 77.PA.87

The artist endows the sitter, a prominent Parisian socialite, with the classical attributes of the powerful goddess, Artemis — the crescent-moon tiara, the far-shooting bow — but seats here in solitary isolation from the eroticizing attendants so often included by European painters. Constance Gabrielle Magdeleine Bonnier de la Mosson was not the only woman to sit for Nattier in the costume of Artemis. At least two others are known: Artemis1.0314 "Marie Adélaïde of France as Diana" (ca. 1745) for Louis XV and Artemis1.0315 a "Portrait of Madame Bergeret de Frouville as Diana" (1756) at the Met.