A WHITE CARVED MARBLE RECLINING FIGURE OF DIANA

Born in 1663, Ren Chauveau came from an artistic family. His father Franois was an engraver, while his elder brother Evrard was a painter. Although he was trained in Paris under Franois Girardon and Philippe Caffieri, he emigrated to Sweden in 1693 as First Sculptor to the King. He remained at Charles XI's court in Stockholm until 1700, and produced numerous decorations for the Royal Palace, with which the present marble may be compared, before returning to France via Berlin. His other documented works include various tombs, and decorations for the Htel of Baron Tessin, the Surintendant des Btiments, who was the supreme advocate of French taste in Sweden. It is easy to imagine that a polished mythological piece on a domestic scale such as the present marble was made for a fashionable Swede at the time, although the subject of Diana the Huntress had a venerable pedigree in France, stretching back to the 16th century.