Madame Bergeret de Frouville as Diana 1756

Jean-Marc Nattier painted Madame Bergeret de Frouville as Diana, goddess of the hunt, sometime in the first half of the 18th century. This portrait exemplifies a trend in France at the time: wealthy aristocratic women being depicted as mythological figures. Diana, the virgin goddess of the hunt, was associated with chastity, the moon, and the natural world. We can read the figure's dress and attributes as visual markers of these associations: the fur wrap and wooded background connect her with nature; the bow and arrows denote her as a huntress. But portraits like this aren't really about mythology. More than anything, they speak to the values of the French court, where aristocratic status was everything. To fully understand this painting, we can research the institutions of the French aristocracy. It's not just a portrait of a woman dressed as a goddess; it reflects the social conditions that made such a portrait possible and meaningful.