The Goddess Diana - Augustus Saint-Gaudens - Ancient Roman Mythology

This statuette of the athletic goddess is a gift of art that conveys the sense of independence possessed by the modern woman, a fine example of French statuary. Augustus Saint-Gaudens was born in Ireland to a French father and Irish mother but grew up in New York. The piece traces its ancestry to Saint-Gaudens’ 18-foot statue that was crafted as a revolving finial to crown the tower of Stanford White’s Madison Square Garden, the second Madison Square Garden. After a performance on June 25, 1906 of Mam’zelle Champagne, White was murdered there by Harry Thaw, another of the wealthy New York socialite set, who accused White of debauching his wife, Evelyn Thaw. White had become Evelyn’s lover when she was sixteen and he was forty-seven. White had had a reputation as a philanderer and one wonders why he chose an unclad virgin goddess to grace the building he had designed.  White was an architect and good friend of Saint-Gaudens’ and the latter agreed to forgo a commission to do the work. A