Father Time grasping a sundial
British (English) School
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
1700 - 1799
Materials
Limestone
Measurements
1880 x 800 x 840 mm
Place of origin
Great Britain
Order this imageCollection
Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire
NT 516672
Summary
Limestone, Father Time grasping sundial, British (English) School, 18th century. A stone figure of Father Time (Chronos) as a bearded elderly man, nude, with drapery over proper left leg, his wings broken off. Partially leaning against a tree trunk, Time twists his body to proper left, grasping a sundial with both hands. The bronze sundial mounted on a square baluster pedestal; the group mounted on a stepped square base.
Full description
A stone copy of this model of Father Time at Duncombe Park is historically attributed to John Nost (d. 1710), the celebrated sculptor in lead who is known to have produced sundials supported by kneeling stylised African and Indian slaves holding the dials atop their head. Nost, for example, produced two of these figures in lead in 1701 for Hampton Court Palace. Copies were made by Nost's assistant Andrew Carpenter (c. 1677-1737), who set up his own lead statuary workshop near the Nost premises in c. 1703 (see NT 936871 at Dunham Massey, a kneeling African male, attributed to Carpenter, c. 1735). John Cheere continued to produce casts adapted from the Nost models, using a kneeling, winged Father Time for the sundial supplied to Blair Atholl in 1743. A variation survives at St Paul's Walden Bury. The Conway Library of the Courtauld Institute of Art files the Duncombe figure of Time under the Flemish sculptor Pierre-Denis Plumier (Anvers 1688 - London 1721) on the basis of similarities to his figure of Time carved in wood for the Spinola tomb at Notre-Dame de la Chapelle, Brussels. Alain Jacobs is hesitant to accept this attribution (Jacobs 1999, p. 164 no. 58). Alice Rylance-Watson 2019
Credit line
Anglesey Abbey, The Fairhaven Collection (The National Trust)
Makers and roles
British (English) School, sculptor
References
Hussey 1957: Christopher Hussey, 'Duncombe Park, Yorkshire--I: The Property of the Earl of Feversham', Country Life, 5 December 1957, pp. 1198-1202., p. 1198 (reproduced). Hussey 1967: Christopher Edward Clive Hussey, English Gardens and Landscapes, 1700-1750, London, 1967, Duncombe Park, fig. 188 (reproduced). Pevsner,. Sir, Nikolaus,. Yorkshire [1966]., p. 141. Jacobs 1999: Alain Jacobs, 'Pierre-Denis Plumier (Anvers 1688- Londres 1721)', Revue belge d'Archéologie et d'Histoire de l'Art, LXVIII, 1999, pp. 113-170., pp. 163, fig. 42 (reproduced), 164 no. 58 'Le Temps'. Roper 1964: Lanning Roper, The Gardens of Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire. The Home of Lord Fairhaven, London 1964, p. 42, pl. 17a. Christie, Manson & Woods 1971: The National Trust, Anglesey Abbey, Cambridge. Inventory: Furniture, Textiles, Porcelain, Bronzes, Sculpture and Garden Ornaments’, 1971, p. 174.