Nymph of Fontainebleau

It features a long-limbed reclining nude female nymph with a stag, wild boars, dogs, and other animals.[2] The sculpture was commissioned by François I, executed in Cellini's workshop at the Hôtel de Nesle (adjacent to the Tour de Nesle) in Paris, sculpted with the help of Thomas Dambry, Pierre Bontemps and Laurent Mailleu, and assembled with the help of foundrymen Pierre Villain and Guillaume Saligot.[1] Originally intended to be placed in the tympanum in the arch above the entrance of the Porte Dorée ("Golden Gate") at the Château de Fontainebleau, it was never installed there, but instead was used by the architect Philibert de L'Orme, who put it above the entrance gate (built c. 1552) of the Château d'Anet,[3] where the nymph became identified with Diana, the goddess of the hunt, representing the owner of the château, Diane de Poitiers,[4] and the stag with her lover Henri II of France.[1] According to the French historian Maurice Roy [fr], it was initially intended for the Musée des Monuments Français in Paris and was later replaced in Anet by a painted plaster cast.[1] After the sculpture's restoration in 1811 by the father and son founder-chasers (French: ciseleurs) Delafontaine, it was installed by the architect Pierre-François Fontaine over the Caryatides Balcony in the Salle des Caryatides of the Lescot Wing, where it remained until 1847, when it was replaced with a cast by Antoine-Louis Barye and transferred to the Sculptures rooms.