Figure of Diana
Andrew Carpenter
- Art Funded
- 2012
- Dimensions
- Height: 2.34 m
- Vendor
- Summers Place auctions
The gardens at Wrest Park were one of the great wonders of English garden design in the late 17th century and 18th centuries, and this statue was commissioned specifically to reside within them.
It shows the goddess Diana, naked except for some drapery around her waist with a dog, possibly a greyhound, beside her. It is remarkable that the statue has survived long enough to be reunited with Wrest. Most of the collection of lead statuary from the estate was tragically melted down for financial reasons by the incumbent Grey family in 1809.
Provenance
Commissioned for Wrest Park, 1729-30; John George Murray, 1917; relocated to Coles Park, c.1939; relocated to Idlicote House, c.1970.