Post by Dennis De Kool

Spring starts today. Flora is a personification of the spring. The sculptor Jan Baptist Xavery made this beautiful marble Flora statue in 1742, the last year of his life. The naked godess wears a chaplet of flowers. With the left hand she holds a sheaf of flowers and with her right a chaplet of flowers. She stands on a painted wood support carved with a shell motif in a wooden niche in Waddesdon – A Rothschild House & Gardens. Xavery also made other Flora sculptures. A sandstone Flora statue (1725) was located in de Gemeente Nijmegen. A marble Flora statue was placed in the famous Zijdebalen garden in de Gemeente Utrecht. Unfortunately both of these Flora sculptures have disappeared. Hopefully they will be rediscovered soon! Literature: 📕 Terence Hodgkinson (1970) Sculpture. The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor, The National Trust. 📗 Reinier Baarsen e.a. (2001) Rococo in Nederland, Waanders/Rijksmuseum: Zwolle/Amsterdam. 📘 Dennis de Kool (2015) "Jan Baptist Xavery en zijn gedocumenteerde beeldhouwwerken in Nijmegen", in: Nijmeegs Katern, 29(5), 66-69. 📙 Dennis de Kool (2016) "Jan Baptist Xavery en zijn gedocumenteerde tuinsculpturen op Zijdebalen", in: Arinda van der Does & Jan Holwerda (eindredactie) Tuingeschiedenis in Nederland II. Denken en doen in de Nederlandse tuinkunst 1500-2000, Stichting Tuinhistorisch Genootschap Cascade, Ulvenhout 2016, p. 63-72. 📕 Dennis de Kool (2017) "Florabeelden in Nederland", in: Arcadië, jaargang 9, nummer 2, pp. 22-25. #janbaptistxavery #sculpture #Flora #spring 📷 Dennis de Kool