Term in the form of Vertumnus
probably French School
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
1700 - 1799
Materials
Limestone
Measurements
2134 mm (Height)
Order this imageCollection
Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire
NT 516646
Summary
Limestone, Vertumnus, probably French School or British (English) School, probably 18th century. A terminal figure in the form of Vertumnus, god of the seasons, hooded and draped around the hip. With the proper left hand he lifts the hood to reveal his face. In the proper right hand he holds the mask used to disguise himself as an old woman, thus tricking Pomona into allowing him entry into her orchard (Ovid, Metamorphoses). The figure terminates in a tapering square pillar. Paired with NT 516645, a terminal figure in the form of Hercules after Le Conte de Boulogne, Parterre de Latone, Versailles (MR 1941). Mounted on a stone block. A terminal figure of Vertumnus removing his hood and mask was carved by François Barois (1656-1726) probably for Versailles, and moved to the Tuileries in 1722. It is now in The Louvre (M.R. 1898).
Provenance
Bequeathed to the National Trust by Huttleston Rogers Broughton, 1st Lord Fairhaven (1896-1966) with the house and the rest of the contents.
Credit line
Anglesey Abbey, The Fairhaven Collection (The National Trust)
Makers and roles
probably French School, sculptor possibly British (English) School, sculptor
References
Roper 1964: Lanning Roper, The Gardens of Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire. The Home of Lord Fairhaven, London 1964, p. 30, p. 78. Christie, Manson & Woods 1971: The National Trust, Anglesey Abbey, Cambridge. Inventory: Furniture, Textiles, Porcelain, Bronzes, Sculpture and Garden Ornaments’, 1971, p. 167. Rosasco 2015: Betsy Rosasco, 'The Herms of Versailles in the 1680s',The Princeton University Library Chronicle, vol. 76, no. 1-2 (Winter 2015), pp. 145-175.