
John Michael RysbrackFlandern, 1694–1770Darf man es sehen?
London, Vereinigtes Königreich
Öffentlich ausgestellt. Wer dafür bürgt, steht unten.
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.
Victoria and Albert Museum