Trompe l'oeil statue of Plenty

Louis Chéron
oil on plaster

The trompe-l'oeil entablature and square columns of thelanding were inspired by the upper staircase at Montagu House,Bloomsbury, but here the Doric order is better suited to the ruralsetting. The busts in niches above the doors probably represent the'Caesars' or Roman Emperors; their form closely mirrors the plasterbusts in the colonnade of the north front. These plaster busts havebeen defaced but drawings made of them in about 1721 reveal the closesimilarity.

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