Ceres
F. Franchi
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
1850 (signed and dated)
Materials
Carrara marble
Measurements
1740 mm (Height)
Place of origin
Carrara
Order this imageCollection
Belton House, Lincolnshire
NT 436788
Summary
Carrara marble, Ceres, F. Franchi, 1850, inscribed ‘F. Franchi | Scul: dal Antico in Carrara 1850’. A life-size marble statue of Ceres, goddess of agriculture, wearing a long dress and draped shawl and holding ears of wheat and a poppy seed pod in her proper left hand. The statue is mounted on a square plinth inscribed ‘CERERE’ and pedestal.
Full description
The statue is possibly associated with the workshop of Carrara sculptor Pietro Franchi (1817-78). It appears not to be a direct copy of an antique or contemporary sculpture, but is derived from the Vatican Ceres of 430-420 BC (Musei Vaticani, inventory number MV_25_0_0). Alice Rylance-Watson October 2018
Provenance
Purchased with a grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) from Edward John Peregrine Cust, 7th Baron Brownlow, C. St J. (b.1936) in 1984.
Credit line
Belton House, The Brownlow Collection (acquired with the help of the National Heritage Memorial Fund by the National Trust in 1994)
Marks and inscriptions
Plinth, front : CERERE Plinth, rear: F. Franchi Scul: dal Antico in Carrara 1850.
Makers and roles
F. Franchi, sculptor