An artwork known as ‘Flora’ illustrated by Angelica Kauffman which was engraved by Francesco Bartozzi at the turn of the 19th century. The artwork is placed in a circle in the middle of the page, which depicts three women with flowers. The one at the centre front in red is placing flowers into a basket. To the upper left, there is another woman sat down with a basket of flowers, but she is wearing blue. At the right of the circle, there is a woman standing with a large garland of flowers. The edge of the artwork is emphasised with two black lines. At the bottom of the piece, it is titled ‘Flora’ with the name of the artist on the left and the name of the engraver on the right.
Flora in Roman mythology is the goddess of flowers, who is usually associated with the coming of Spring along with the fertility of the land. The Romans considered her a minor goddess who was rarely mentioned in the mythos, however, she played an important part in the celebrations and rituals of Spring.
Angelica Kauffman (30 October 1741 – 5 November 1807) was a Swiss Neoclassical painter that was well-known in London and Rome. During the 1750s her family moved to Como in Lombardy, Italy when which was then under Austrian rule. Her father Joseph Johann Kauffman (1707-1782) was a relatively poor man who worked for the local bishop. He was also a skilled artist and took his daughter under his wing as his assistant. Kauffman proved herself as a child prodigy, as not only did she become fluent in four languages (English, German, Italian and French), she was already an established artist at just twelve years old.
With the persuasion of Lady Wentworth, Kauffman came to London, England. She painted many figures such as David Garrick and became good friends with the painter Sir Joshua Reynolds. Kauffman, just like the engraver of this piece Francesco Bartozzi, were both founding members of the Royal Academy (RA) in London in 1786. In fact, Kauffman was one of only two women painters that helped establish the RA, the other being Mary Moser. She eventually went back to her Italian roots, residing in Rome due to the lack of appreciation from the British of history paintings, a style which she specialised in. She died in 1807 and in 2007, a museum was established in her honour at her father’s house in Schwarzenberg, Austria.
This object was audited and researched as part of the Heritage Fund Data Hunters and Story Gatherers project.
