Trompe l'oeil statue of Plenty

Louis Chéron
oil on plaster

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

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