Saturday, August 24, 2013

Figure of the Day: Queen Mary II , 1695



Model of Queen Mary II
John Nost
Terracotta, 1695
The Victoria & Albert Museum



This statuette of painted terracotta depicts Queen Mary II, consort-of and co-regent with King William III, holding an orb and sceptre and looking towards her left. The Queen wears her crown and bejeweled dress ( and presumably her coronation robes). This figure was a model for a full-size statue which has since been lost, following the fire at the Exchange of 1838.

The 1695 sculpture is the work of John Nost, a native of Malines in The Netherlands, who was first recorded in England around 1678, working at Windsor Castle under Hugh May. Notably, Nost specialized in lead figures, though he also worked in other materials, such as assorted stones and terracotta. A popular artist of the Seventeenth Century, Nost was commissioned to make a numerous lead garden figures for great houses and palaces, including Castle Howard and Hampton Court Palace.





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