This terracotta figure is based on a bronze statuette by Giambologna, sculptor to the Medici Grand-Dukes of Tuscany. Giambologna's signed bronze (now in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence) is securely documented for the first time in Ferdinando de' Medici's 1584 inventory. Although originally described as a woman kneeling, the model is inspired by a famous Hellenistic sculpture of Venus and now generally known as Kneeling Venus drying herself. By adding a crescent moon to her forehead, the present figure has been transformed into Diana, the goddess of hunting and of the moon. The sculpture was bought with several other works from the Gherardini Collection in Florence in 1854 as a contemporary work by Giambologna, and later redated to around 1700. However, technical examination carried out in 1976 indicated that it was made between 1815 and 1855, demonstrating the enduring appeal of the model for collectors.