Borghese Balustrade, Cliveden House-VR Optimised

3D Model

Model created April 2019.

The 17th Century Balustrade was acquired by the First Lord Astor from the gardens of the Villa Borghese, Rome in 1896.

The Italian Government decided that the balustrade, being a purely decorative object, did not classify as a work of art although the finely carved statues placed upon it were important antiquities and could not be removed from Italy.

The figures that were subsequently bought by Lord Astor to replace the sculptures were early 18th century French figures of hunting nymphs from Bagatelle, Lord Hertford’s Villa near Paris.

These are normally displayed on the two central piers of the balustrade and were executed by Claude Poirer and Claude Augustin Cayot who worked extensively at Versailles and Marly and who supplied these statues for Louis XIV as part of a series of hand maidens accompanying a classical sculpture of Diana.