{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O74888"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O74888/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2016JA2694/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2016JA2694/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2016JA2694","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AM8380","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AG1595","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AP1920","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JU2012","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O74888/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O74888","accessionNumber":"P.9-1940","objectType":"Portrait Miniature","titles":[{"title":"Portrait Miniature of The Goddess Diana","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"Isaac Oliver died in 1617, shortly before Nicholas Hilliard (1547-1619), who had taught him the techniques of miniature painting. But Oliver had long since gained the ascendant in terms of innovation. \r\n\r\nWhen Oliver first studied with Hilliard he was already a trained artist, imbued with sophisticated ideas about art. His visit to Italy, unprecedented for an English artist, is indicative of his interest in Continental European art. This can be seen in this unusual picture of the classical goddess Diana, identified by the crescent moon in her headdress. Oliver’s miniature is probably copied from part of a Dutch mythological painting. This miniature is also unusual, being painted on cambric rather than on the traditional vellum support, and would probably be unattributable to the artist were it not signed ‘IO’.","physicalDescription":"Miniature painting of the goddess Diana, head and shoulders. Oval encased in a rectangular frame.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Oliver, Isaac","id":"A8707"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"watercolour","id":"x33202"},{"text":"vellum","id":"x42751"}],"techniques":[{"text":"painting","id":"AAT54216"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Watercolour/bodycolour on sized cambric laid down onto a thin panel of limewood","categories":[{"text":"Paintings","id":"THES48917"},{"text":"Myths & Legends","id":"THES49005"},{"text":"Miniatures","id":"THES269968"}],"styles":[{"text":"Jacobean","id":"AAT107014"},{"text":"Stuart","id":"AAT21037"},{"text":"English School","id":"x44855"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2016JA2694","2006AM8380","2006AG1595","2006AP1920","2017JU2012"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLF","id":"THES49656"},"free":"","case":"RMC","shelf":"1","box":"B"}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"miniature","id":"AAT33936"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"No","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"England","id":"x28826"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1615","earliest":"1615-01-01","latest":"1615-12-31"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Purchased with funds from the R. H. Stephenson Bequest","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"86","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"64","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"132","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"Case (with loop)","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"122","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"Case (without loop)","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"17","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"case","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"86","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"aperture","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"64","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"aperture","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Dimensions taken from: Strong, Roy. Artists of the Tudor Court: the Portrait Miniature Rediscovered 1520-1620.. London: The Victoria and Albert Museum, 1983. ","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"COLLECTIONS: H. Reynolds Solly sale, Sotheby’s 27th June 1940 (lot 136); purchased with funds from the R. H. Stephenson Bequest.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Portrait Miniature, Portrait Miniature of the goddes Diana, by Isaac Oliver, watercolour/bodycolour on cambric, 1615","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Strong, Roy. Artists of the Tudor Court: the Portrait Miniature Rediscovered 1520-1620. London: The Victoria and Albert Museum, 1983. Cat. 174, p. 113. \n\nPart Citation:\r\n\r\n\"Unique amongst Oliver’s oeuvre both in technique and subject matter, this is a miniature of outstanding quality... The identity as Diana is secured by the crescent-moon in her head-dress. This is the only miniature in which Oliver embarks onto subject matter normally the preserve of his drawings. The stylistic source is Dutch mannerist mythological painting of the type stemming from Spranger via Goltzius, indeed, the miniature suggests, that it is copied from part of a mythological picture. This is perfectly possible as the Low Countries and Venice were the two sources drawn upon for the formation of picture collections in early seventeenth century England the earliest of which were Prince Henry’s and Robert Cecil’s. The Prince’s we know included substantial purchased of Netherlandish pictures. His mother also collected and a Diana and her Nymphs is recorded at Oatlands, a picture which may have been hers but might equally have come to her on Henry’s death (O. Millar, The Queen’s Pictures, London, 1977, p. 24). The edges have been trimmed in modern times.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"p. 212-3","free":"Catharine MacLeod with Rab MacGibbon, Victoria Button, Katherine Coombs and Alan Derbyshire. Elizabethan treasures : miniatures by Hilliard and Oliver. London : National Portrait Gallery, 2019. ISBN: 9781855147027"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Katherine Coombs, The Portrait Miniature in England, V&A Publications, 1998, pp.87-92."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Katherine Coombs, Finney, Samuel (1719-1798)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Damiët Schneeweisz, Rosalind McKever, and Adriana Concin. The Portrait Miniature: A New History . London: Thames & Hudson and the V&A, 2026."},{"reference":{"text":"Damiët Schneeweisz, Rosalind McKever, and Adriana Concin. The Portrait Miniature: A New History. London: Thames & Hudson and the V&A, 2026.","id":"AUTH411474"},"details":"","free":""}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"Painting of a woman, head and shoulders, her head tilted and turned to the right; in her hair she wears a string of pearls a crescent moon in her headdress.","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"Diana","id":"N145"}],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"Crescent moon","id":"x35996"},{"text":"pearls","id":"x39965"},{"text":"goddess","id":"x37278"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["P.9-1940"],"accessionNumberNum":"9","accessionNumberPrefix":"P","accessionYear":1940,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-12-15","recordCreationDate":"2003-02-22","availableToBook":false}}