Diana of Ephesus 

Editor: This is "Diana of Ephesus," an etching by Jean Mignon. It has an otherworldly feeling. The figure is covered in…well, many things! Lobsters, towers… I’m curious what they might mean. What do you make of it? Curator: Oh, this Diana. She's quite the maximalist, isn't she? My first impression? She embodies abundance – visually and conceptually! It reminds me of those Renaissance curiosity cabinets, where everything rare and wondrous was crammed together to awe the visitor. Tell me, does the figure remind you of any classical sculptures you've seen? Editor: I see what you mean by "maximalist," there's certainly a lot to take in. I see classical contrapposto, but not the sleek forms I'd expect. There’s a rigidness in the rendering that I associate with Mannerism. Curator: Precisely! Mignon has twisted and embellished the classical ideal. Those rows of egg-shaped… things? They represent breasts, symbols of fertility. And notice how the objects around her, like the crayfish and temple, are linked to Artemis, or Diana, the Greek and Roman goddess. To me, the print isn’t about perfect representation, but about layering symbolic meaning. The more you look, the more she reveals, like an unfolding poem. It’s deeply intuitive, really. What kind of a story does she start to tell you? Editor: She is telling me to look closer at prints! At first, the visual density felt a bit much. But knowing the symbols now, it does feel like an encyclopedic ode to fertility and classical imagery. Curator: Yes! Think of each object like a word in a visual language that Mignon invites us to decode, a glimpse into the Renaissance mind – both complex and utterly captivating.