Plinth
Cliveden Conservation Workshop
Category
Stone
Date
Unknown
Materials
Composite (reconstituted) stone
Measurements
1256 x 1022 x 1022 mm
Collection
Stowe, Buckinghamshire
NT 91976.3.2
Summary
Plinth for Thalia, Muse of Comedy and Idyllic/Pastoral Poetry
Full description
This plain square plinth is a recreation of the lost eighteenth-century stone plinth. The original Stowe Nine Muses plinths are shown in the 1730’s engraving of Stowe Garden by Bernard Baron and John Francis Rigaud ‘View of the House from the Parterre’ and the 1750’s illustration and later hand-coloured engraving ’A View in the Elysian Fields from The Spring of Helicon’ (example NT 91830.5). Estate Accounts, held in the Huntington Library, refer to the 'Setting up pedestals of the Mewses. [sic]..' and 'carving the pedestals of the Muses' in 1768. The recreated plinth includes a surbase with the name THALIA carved onto it. The font and scale of the lettering replicate a surviving fragment of the original eighteenth century surbase for the Muse Polyhymnia. This fragment of surbase is all that remains of the original Muses plinths.
Provenance
Commissioned by the National Trust as part of the recreated statue of Thalia and installed in Stowe Gardens in February 2020. This statue was recreated as part of the statue group Apollo and the Nine Muses. These statues were recreated as an artistic commission in the spirit of the lost original C18th statue group.
Marks and inscriptions
Carved on the surbase is the name of the Muse: THALIA
Makers and roles
Cliveden Conservation Workshop, creator