Diana and Her Companions
Diana and her companions is a history painting by Jan Vermeer, he 1655/1656 painted. The 98.5 centimeters high and 105 centimeters wide oil painting is a representation of the hunting goddess Diana. It is the third image of Vermeer's genre of history painting by Christ with Mary and Martha and The Holy Praxedis that he made early in his career as a painter. Today it can be seen in the Mauritshuis.
Since the image especially in the representation of postures defects were reputed style critical doubts were repeated loud that it was at all a work of Vermeer. These doubts can be up to now neither confirm nor refute.
Image description
The painting Diana and her companions shows Diana, also called Artemis, in the company of four nymphs. The identity of the centrally seated on a stone in the picture greek goddess of the hunt, which was considered particularly chaste, is clear about the diadem showing the crescent moon as its attribute. She wears an ocher robe and can be washed her bare feet from a kneeling in front of her nymph. In the presentation of this ritual act Vermeer accesses the Christian motif of the washing of feet. The image is handlungsarm, two nymphs sit with Diana on the stone, half naked and one of them turned away from the viewer, one is in the background and considered as the Fourth makes the foot washing. On the left side sits a dog. The black-clad nymph on the screen background might be Callisto. The folded on his stomach hands point to her pregnancy, which she tries to hide.
The scene depicted by Vermeer is at dusk, which is why the faces of the women are in shadow. The darkness and the diadem with a crescent moon are an allusion to the common practice of equating Diana the moon goddess Selene. The timing also determines the color. So the background is very dark. Moreover, the two closest to the right edge positioned nymphs are dressed in dark clothes. In contrast, carry Diana and the other two nymphs bright clothes that contrast with the background.
Restoration
The painting Diana and her companions was restored in 1999. It turned out that the sky did not come from Vermeer, but was later painted over the original. This was on the use of Prussian blue, which was not discovered until after 1700, as well as chrome green, which was only discovered in 1830 moored. Analyzes showed that the color of the heavens corresponded to the dark parts of the tree in the left background. Nevertheless, the sky was not removed because the underlying layers of paint could be damaged and can not be determined, was the state in which the original layer, but painted over with a thin layer of dark brown color. It was also noted that at the right edge, a twelve inch wide strip of the image has been removed.
Provenance and attribution
On May 4, 1876 auctioned Victor de Stuers, an art official in charge of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at an auction in Paris for 10,000 francs the painting Diana and her companions for the Mauritshuis. At the time the image is still Nicolaes Maes was attributed to the Rembrandt van Rijn was a student. In 1885 it was discovered that the signature N.M. was painted on J VMeer so that the image en Stuers now attributed to Vermeer. However, this attribution was not hedged because there was little evidence to back only recently discovered Vermeer. Four years later, the new director of the Mauritshuis, Abraham Bredius wrote that the painting Johann van der Meer, because it is too different from the well-known works by Vermeer.
In 1901, the write-up changed again when the London art dealer Forbes & Robertson exhibited the early work of Christ with Mary and Martha by Jan Vermeer. Bredius traveled with Deputy Director, Willem Martin, to London. Martin wrote because of the similar colors and style of painting also to Diana and her companions Jan Vermeer, while Bredius was not convinced. In addition, similarities with the paintings At the matchmaker, another early work of Vermeer, led.
Nevertheless, the attribution question is not clarified until today without any doubt.