Diane by Yoann Lossel

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Yoann Lossel

Diane

2018

58 x 43 cm | 22 3/4 x 16 3/4 in

Mixed Media : Graphite and Gold leaf on paper.

  • Dual Category Awards
I chose years ago to live in the forest of Brocéliande, in Brittany, in the west of France. It is a very special place, on the boundary between Celtic mythology, medieval romance, Arthurian legend and the living forest of today. It is both a magnificent natural place and an imaginary space that exists at the crossroads of many times, in the manner of the Otherworld, mythological concept that I love so much.

I like to represent thresholds, doors that lead to the Other World, Annwvyn, Sídhe, these places that allow the hero to become a hero. This subject, "Diane", is a representation of it. Diane has the power of life and death, a recurrent theme in Celtic mythology and which we find legitimately later in the Arthurian novels. She can choose to kill with her arrows or resurrect, arbitrarily and depending on her mood, like Apollo. There is no cruelty in this duality, Diane is a mythological concept, a representation of the world. It is an allegory of life and death, of the cyclical seasons. She hunts a white doe, a psychopomp animal that travels and guides between the worlds, queen of the forest and sacred creature reserved for hunters of the otherworld as Arawn king of Annwvyn or Belfëa, prince of Brocéliande.
In the background of this scene, a temple of Diana and a tribute to my favorite German Symbolist painter, Ferdinand Keller, and his painting "The Tomb of Böcklin", another door between two worlds.

Mixed media : Graphite, Gold leaf (24k, lemon, rose and champagne), oxidized Silver leaf, Silver leaf and hydrangeas petals on Arches paper. The doe and the strawberries are in relief.