Augustus Saint-Gaudens: Diana

DESCRIPTION

During the 1890s Augustus Saint-Gaudens (American, born Ireland, 1848–1907) created 3 reduced variant editions of the 13-foot Diana sculpture. The Metropolitan Museum’s statuette is one of the rare second types depicting the elegant figure posed on tiptoe on a sphere set on a two-tier base. Its matte patina, composed of gold, copper, and zinc, was applied by the electroplating process. The Museum’s Diana sculpture is a reproduction of the original work on view in the Museum's American Wing.

Bonded bronze. Hand patinated. 15 1/4''H x 5 1/4''W x 11 1/2''L including base.

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ART HISTORY

Augustus Saint-Gaudens (American, born Ireland, 1848–1907) was a French-Irish immigrant who became the greatest American sculptor of his day. During the three decades of his remarkable career, Saint- Gaudens redirected and invigorated the course of American sculpture to a lively naturalistic style both in his public monuments and in his statuettes, portrait busts, and reliefs. Saint-Gaudens’s Diana, the artist’s only female nude, originated in the gilded bronze figure that he designed as a weathervane for the tower on Madison Square Garden designed by Stanford White (completed 1890). The original 18-foot version, erected in 1891, was deemed too large by White and Saint-Gaudens, and was removed in 1892. A year later, a second version, more graceful at 13 feet high, was installed. It dominated the New York skyline until 1925, when the building was torn down.