Latona Giving Birth to Apollo and Diana

Diana Mantovana learned to engrave from her father, Mantuan court artist and sculptor Giovanni Battista Scultori. Diana was a rarity among Renaissance printmakers both for her gender and her ambition. She worked in Rome as a reproductive engraver, a highly accomplished skill that involved translating other artists' paintings, sculptures, and drawings into prints. This scene, copied after a design by painter Giulio Romano, depicts Zeus's paramour Latona, who was forced to give birth to their twins on the remote island of Delos in order to escape the detection-and wrath-of Zeus's wife, Hera.