Fitzgerald Memorial Monument

The Fitzgerald family of Waterford maintained an 800 year presence on ‘The Island’, where their former home is now Waterford Castle Hotel. This monument, erected in 1770, is the work of John van Nost the Younger, who was described by a Corpora on of Dublin committee as ‘the most knowing and skilful statuary in this kingdom’ in 1752. Van Nost’s work drew on Netherlandish style, Italianate idealisation, and classical influences. Here a figure of Piety sits on a sarcophagus of Kilkenny marble holding a medallion depicting the deceased Fitzgeralds as Roman patricians. Advancing towards Piety is Father Time grasping an upturned broken hourglass in one hand and a scythe in the other to represent the coming of life’s end.