Fountain with a Sculpture of the Godess Diana at Chateau d'Anet 1607

Curator: Look at this intriguing piece by Jacques Androuet Du Cerceau, a drawing from 1607 titled "Fountain with a Sculpture of the Goddess Diana at Chateau d'Anet." It resides here at the Met. Editor: My first thought? Imposing, like an architectural blueprint but for pleasure, for leisure. You immediately grasp the craftsmanship...or rather, the intent of superior craftsmanship, as everything appears meticulously planned. What are your impressions? Curator: I see a dream, almost melancholic, suspended in ink. The goddess, Diana, reclining with her bow and a stag... there's a languid beauty there, but also a sense of unattainable perfection, typical of Mannerism, perhaps? It whispers of secret gardens and whispered conversations. Editor: Absolutely. The emphasis here is decidedly on Mannerism—you see that in the calculated elegance, and even more tellingly, in the layered presentation itself. A practical object made utterly precious, conceived for a hyper-elite space and consumer. The print format makes the original accessible, albeit still a luxury good. Curator: Accessible opulence...that's a good way to put it. And what do you make of the men near the base? One holding an urn, as if drawing water, and the other climbing stairs toward what looks like a terrace? They seem so small compared to the goddess. Editor: Those figures! That juxtaposition highlights the mechanics involved, and by extension, the manpower behind aristocratic display. They reveal the social machine that kept these chateaus – and thus, this fountain – operational, beautiful, and desirable. It gives us the human element within all that glorious sculpture and carefully managed space. Curator: Yes, a human element rendered as diminutive, like ants diligently at work, serving some higher, unknowable power of wealth, art, and representation! The goddess becomes a remote figure in that hierarchy, maybe? Editor: Precisely. In truth, while on the surface it looks to celebrate Diana or this particular estate, what it reveals instead are those intricate systems. Looking closely you understand all that these symbols reveal. Curator: An understanding materialized through lines and shades – shadows of social relations! So much to consider. Editor: Indeed. I think that’s precisely what makes this drawing enduring, even now: the ways the concrete elements of material reality elevate that goddess, Diana, or more generally speaking - pure and beautiful art.