Giovanni Mollica, Circa 1860 - Large Terracotta Farnese Flora - Grand Tour

Visible in Paris. Hand-delivered in the capital and its suburbs. Delivery for France: 20€. Contact me for Europe and the rest of the world.

Flore Farnèse
Terracotta
Dimensions : H. 34,5 (cm.)
Naples, circa 1860

The Farnese Flora
The impressive antique figure of the Flora Farnese was discovered in Rome before 1532 and entered the Farnese collection, where it remained in the family palace until the end of the 18th century. It was then transferred to Naples, where it is still housed in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale. The head, part of the neck and the right arm and left forearm were missing from the Roman marble and were restored by Guglielmo della Porta (c. 1500-1577) around 1555, who added a floral garland, making it a figure of Flora. A pen-and-ink drawing, probably by Nicolas Poussin, kept at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, gives an idea of what the sculpture looked like in the early 17th century. 

The antique marble was reduced by Giacomo Zoffoli (1731-1785) from another model by Vincenzo Pacetti in 1773. Popular on the Grand Tour, examples are now in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, Saltram Park in Devon and Schloss Wörlitz in Saxony-Anhalt.
This antique was restored a second time in 1787, replacing the floral garland on the left hand with a bouquet.

The Mollica workshop
Giovanni Mollica founded a ceramics workshop in 1842 in via Santa Lucia, Naples. In 1862, his sons Ciro, Achille and Alexander took over the family business, which continued until the end of the century. They offered a comprehensive catalogue of antique terracotta reworkings, as well as crockery and highly decorative coloured pieces.

Condition report: excellent condition