Bassin de Cérès, Versailles

The Ceres basin is a basin in the gardens of Versailles, belonging to the group of basins of the Seasons: the basin of Ceres, the basin of Flora, the basin of Bacchus, the basin of Saturn.

The Four Seasons are represented several times in sculpture at Versailles. The Grande Commande is a group of sculptures commissioned by Louis XIV in 1674, including statues of the Seasons.

In 1672, the construction of the four basins of the Seasons was undertaken: Spring, represented by Flora, Summer, in the guise of Ceres, Autumn, represented by Bacchus, Winter, personified by Saturn. Each basin has a round lead platform at its center, on which a statue, an allegory of a season, originally surrounded by children and their usual attributes, is depicted. The groups of children were moved to the Hall of the Feasts. The central figures are gilded and the central island was previously surrounded by a stone cordon recalling the attributes of each season, but these elements, subsequently deemed superfluous, were removed between 1684 and 1686.