Bildnis der Prinzessin Elisabeth von der Pfalz als Diana (1618-1680)

Princess Elisabeth of the Palatinate as Diana, painted by Honthorst in 1632 and held in the Bavarian State Painting Collections, depicts the third child of the Winter King Frederick V and Elizabeth Stuart in the guise of the goddess of the hunt — a mode of allegorical portraiture fashionable at the courts of early modern Europe. The real Elisabeth (1618–1680) became famous not for hunting but for philosophy: she corresponded extensively with Descartes and challenged his mind-body dualism in exchanges that Descartes himself acknowledged as formidable. At fourteen in 1632, she is presented through the Diana persona rather than through any hint of her future intellectual life. The Diana portrait formula — crescent moon in the hair, hunting attributes, loose drapery — recurred across European courts and was used for multiple women simultaneously, making it a flexible vehicle for collective dynastic self-presentation.

The Diana guise requires the insertion of specific iconographic attributes — crescent moon, hunting dog, quiver of arrows — that transform the conventional portrait into an allegorical figure. Honthorst's daylight technique suits the outdoor associations of the hunting goddess, while the young subject's face would be rendered with the fresh, clear complexion appropriate to the combination of youth and divine identity. The white or pale drapery associated with Diana provides a luminous foil for the face.