Diana of the Tower

Augustus Saint-Gaudens

National Gallery of Art

Cast in bronze, this free-standing sculpture shows a slender, young, nude woman balanced on the toes of one foot on a globe as she pulls back an arrow in a bow. The smooth, dark brown bronze surface is touched with hints of honey gold where light catches it, as on her chest and along her outstretched leg. In this photograph, her body is angled to our right, and she turns her head so we see her profile facing our right. She balances on the ball of her left foot, farther from us, as she lifts her nearly straight right leg up behind her. Her left arm extends straight, holding the bow. With her other hand, she pulls the long arrow and bowstring back to nearly touch her right shoulder, so the arms of the bow are almost parallel. Her wavy hair is pulled up in a bun on the crown of her head. She has a long, straight nose, and her lips are closed. The ball on which she stands balances on a rectangular, slightly flaring plinth, which is about half the height of the woman. The bottom corners of the plinth nestle between the wings of two sphinx-like creatures with animal faces, horns, wide, lion-like paws, and wings. Below a row of three stylized rosettes near the top edge of the plinth, the cast inscription reads, “DIANA OF THE TOWER.”