Diana the Huntress Greek Roman Art Fresco Naples Italy

This is an original painting, oil on canvas, 16 x 20.  It is unframed with staples showing along the edge. Edges are painted a dark blue/black color.  This painting is from an original small wall painting at the archaeological site of Stabiae, transferred to panel, the original being 14 ¾ x 11 inches.  It is currently in the Museo Nazionale in Naples, Italy.  Stabiae is the location of the best preserved group of ancient Roman villas of the Bay of Naples.  A seaside resort where the rich and powerful of the Roman elite built their spectacular luxury villas and power-houses; a few miles from the active cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, and in the very hearth of one of the most beautiful and fashionable places of the Roman world: the Bay of Naples and the Sorrento-Amalfi Coast.

In Roman mythology, Diana was the goddess of the hunt, being associated with wild animals and woodland, and also of the moon.  In literature she was the equivalent of the Greek goddess Artemis, though in cult beliefs she was Italic, not Greek, in origin.  Oak groves were especially sacred to her. According to mythology, Diana was born with her twin brother Apollo on the island of Delos, daughter of Jupiter and Latona. There is NO RESERVE on this item.