Diana of Versailles

[6] The statue was given by Pope Paul IV to Henry II of France in 1556[7] with a subtle but inescapable allusion to the king's mistress, Diane de Poitiers.

The fountain incorporated bronze hunting dogs and stag's heads spitting water, sculpted by Pierre Biard [Wikidata], and was located in the Jardin de la Reine, with a parterre surrounded by an orangery.

[16][17] At the time of the French Revolution, Prieur's bronze was sent to the Louvre, but in 1813, Emperor Napoleon offered it to Empress Joséphine to decorate her Château de Malmaison.

At the same time, he ordered the present bronze, a replica cast by the Keller brothers in 1684 and formerly at the Château de Marly (demolished 1806), be placed on the fountain at Fontainebleau.

[17] Comparable Roman replicas of the same model, noted by the Louvre's website, have been found at Leptis Magna (Libya), at Antalya (Turkey) and also Annaba (Algeria).

A miniature replica of the Diana of Versailles statue was a feature atop one of the first class reception room fireplaces on board the sunken ocean liner RMS Titanic for her maiden voyage in April 1912.

Until the rediscovery of the Diana of Versailles statue in September 2024, many experts had previously believed that it had been consumed by the seabed due to it not being spotted on any other expeditions to Titanic since it was initially photographed in 1986.