Diana after the Hunt
by BOUCHER, François, Oil on canvas, 37 x 52 cm
Tiepolo’s chilly women are stripped by Boucher to complete nudity, warmed by love or lust, and made always girls before they are goddesses. The trappings of mythology are increasingly only different wrappings for the same offering, guaranteed not to interfere with contemplation of the woman even if she is supposed to be Diana after the Hunt. Thus, while the stage is equipped with false trees or false doves, truth is present in the observation of naked bodies, draperies that set them off, and - most caressingly - in the texture of flesh conveyed by paint.