Diana and the Stag

At the end of the 18th century, Alexandre Lenoir attributed the Diane from Anet, sometimes identified as Diane de Poitiers, to Jean Goujon. It is impossible that Goujon, burdened as he was by his responsibilities in Paris, could have worked at the château of Anet, which was begun in 1548 and completed in 1555 by Philibert Delorme. Du Colombier sees in this work a painter’s hand, and suggests as its author Primaticcio or one of his followers, for the group, very charming but slackly modelled, is reminiscent of Italian Mannerism. The statue type itself was established in France by Cellini in 1543 at Fontainebleau. This work is more likely to be by Germain Pilon, who dominated French sculpture in the second half of the 16th century.