 Canova was first instructed to depict Pauline Bonaparte fully clothed as the chaste goddess Diana, hunter and virgin, but Pauline started to laugh and said that nobody would have believed she was a virgin.She had an international reputation for easy promiscuity, in France and in Italy, and may have enjoyed the provocation of posing naked in the catholic Rome.Further, when Pauline was asked whether she really posed naked in front of Canova, she replied that in fact she was naked, and that it didn't constituents a problem because Canova "was not a real man", and that the room was to warm to pose dressed.