Flora thumbnail 1

Flora

Statuette
1759 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This is a model for the marble statue commissioned by Henry Hoare in 1759 as an accompaniment to a marble Herculescarved by Rysbrack between 1747 and 1752. Both statues were for the Pantheon, a lakeside temple in Hoare's landscape garden at Stourhead, Wiltshire. The marble Floracost Hoare £400. It is based on the Farnese Flora, a classical sculpture once owned by the Farnese family that is now in the Museo Nazionale, Naples. In the mid-18th century, small copies of the Farnese Flora were produced in quantity by London's Bow porcelain factory. Rysbrack's Hercules remains in the Pantheon at Stourhead, a property that today is in the care of the National Trust and open to the public.

Rysbrack (1694-1770) was born in Antwerp, and trained in the Netherlands, but spent his working life in Britain. He was one of the most important sculptors active in this country in the first half of the 18th century, and specialised in portrait busts and funerary monuments. Although he never visited Italy, many of his works are clearly indebted to classical archetypes. His terracotta models are particularly fine, and are often virtually finished pieces in their own right.

Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleFlora (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Terracotta, made from modelled clay
Brief description
Statuette, terracotta, Flora, by John Michael Rysbrack, London, 1759
Physical description
She wears a classical garment, held on the hips by a narrow knotted belt, and with a cloak over her left arm. Her weight is on her right leg, the left being bent at the knee. In her left hand she holds a wreath of flowers, now broken.
Dimensions
  • Height: 57.3cm
Credit line
Purchased using funds from the Hildburgh Bequest
Object history
Purchased under the bequest of Dr. W. L. Hildburgh, F. S. A., 1961.
Historical context
This terracotta is a model for the marble Flora, finished in 1761 and made by Rysbrack for Henry Hoare and still in the Pantheon at Stourhead, though it appears from the sculptor's letters of 1758 to another patron, Sir Edward Littleton, who eventually bought this model, that more than one model was made.
Subject depicted
Summary
This is a model for the marble statue commissioned by Henry Hoare in 1759 as an accompaniment to a marble Herculescarved by Rysbrack between 1747 and 1752. Both statues were for the Pantheon, a lakeside temple in Hoare's landscape garden at Stourhead, Wiltshire. The marble Floracost Hoare £400. It is based on the Farnese Flora, a classical sculpture once owned by the Farnese family that is now in the Museo Nazionale, Naples. In the mid-18th century, small copies of the Farnese Flora were produced in quantity by London's Bow porcelain factory. Rysbrack's Hercules remains in the Pantheon at Stourhead, a property that today is in the care of the National Trust and open to the public.

Rysbrack (1694-1770) was born in Antwerp, and trained in the Netherlands, but spent his working life in Britain. He was one of the most important sculptors active in this country in the first half of the 18th century, and specialised in portrait busts and funerary monuments. Although he never visited Italy, many of his works are clearly indebted to classical archetypes. His terracotta models are particularly fine, and are often virtually finished pieces in their own right.
Bibliographic references
  • Bilbey, Diane and Trusted, Marjorie, British Sculpture 1470-2000: A Concise Catalogue of the Collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum. London: V&A Publications, 2002 pp. 140, 1. cat.no. 193
  • Haskell, F. and Penny, N. Taste and the Antique, New Haven, 1982 (revised ed.), p. 80 and fig. 43
  • Lord, J., 'J.M. Rysbrack and a Group of East Midlands Commissions', in: Burlington Magazine, CXXXII, December 1990, p. 868, note 21.
  • Whinney, Margaret, English Sculpture 1720-1830. London: H. M. Stationery Off., 1971 p. 50
  • Kenworthy-Browne, J., "Rysbrack, 'Hercules', and Pietro da Cortona", in: Burlington Magazine, CXXV, pp. 216-9, fig. 29
  • Eustace, Katharine, Michael Rysbrack, sculptor, 1694-1770, City of Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, 1982
Collection
Accession number
A.9-1961

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Record createdFebruary 26, 2003
Record URL
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