Cybele and Juno Return to Stowe: South Front Portico Restored After 178 Years

Stowe House Preservation Trust has completed the long-awaited reinstatement of the South Front portico statues, returning newly created copies of the seated figures of Cybele and Juno to their original niches for the first time since they were sold at the historic 1848 Stowe Sale.

The Project

Installed during December and January, the statues mark a significant milestone in the Trust’s decades-long mission to restore Stowe House to its former architectural and symbolic splendour. Only the final limewash coat now awaits application in spring, when conditions are suitable.

Each statue, weighing approximately 700kg, was lifted into position using a specialist crane, one of only two of its type in the UK. The pieces were then carefully hoisted onto a scaffold tower and slid into their historic niches on the South Front.

Recreating Two Lost Masterpieces

The original Cybele, a Roman sculpture dating from around AD 50, is now housed at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. The whereabouts of Juno remain unknown. Their purchase by Mr Robertson of Fleet Street and Lady Glamis of the Bowes-Lyon family at the 1848 Stowe Sale left two prominent empty niches overlooking the south garden vista.

Reinstating the statues required years of research, technical innovation and careful decision-making. In 2019, the Getty Museum generously undertook a 3D scan of Cybele and shared the digital model with Stowe House Preservation Trust. This scan became the foundation for the reconstruction of Cybele and, ultimately, the reimagining of Juno.

Because seated Roman statues of female figures are extremely rare, and surviving depictions of Juno often recline too deeply for Stowe’s shallow niches, the team recognised that a direct copy was not possible. To develop a historically informed solution, the Trust commissioned Cliveden Conservation, who enlisted sculptor Sam Steel to design new statues using a research-led, hybrid approach.

Using a scaled 3D print of Cybele – known as a maquette (a small working model) – Sam created a full-size clay reconstruction, reintroducing lost details such as the nose, left hand and tympanum (hand-drum). Where required, he drew on archaeological comparanda, meaning comparable surviving examples used to inform missing or damaged areas.

Rebuilding Cybele from the scan was a unique challenge. We had to respect the original while acknowledging that this is a new artwork. Every decision was rooted in evidence, but also in sensitivity to Stowe’s architecture.

Sam Steel of Steelworks Sculpture Limited

Cybele’s attributes were carefully reconsidered, including her tower crown as protector of cities, the lion symbolising her power over wild animals, a ruder to represent control and the cornucopia representing agriculture and fertility. Historic depictions also show her holding a tympanum, or hand drum, central to the ecstatic rites of her cult. Sam was able to seamlessly incorporate this into the sculpture, with the reconstructed hand resting naturally across the top of the cornucopia and rudder.

Transforming Cybele into Juno

Once Cybele was complete, attention turned to Juno. Rather than starting again, Sam adapted the Cybele model to create Juno through a series of subtle but significant changes. These included altering the pose to a more gently reclining form, reworking the drapery, removing the lion, and introducing Juno’s peacock, a symbol of divine authority.

A new head was added, modelled from a 3D scan used in the recent North Hall bust project and derived from the celebrated Roman Juno Ludovisi. The result is a sculpture that is historically grounded while being carefully tailored to Stowe’s architectural setting.

With both clay figures complete, Cliveden Conservation took silicone rubber moulds and cast the finished statues in a stone concrete mix.

Installation and Visual Harmony Restored

The reinstatement of Cybele and Juno has restored not only the architectural rhythm of the South Front, but also a richly layered narrative across the portico.

Viewed from the bottom of the garden steps, the composition now reads as a balanced sequence. The eye moves from Cybele’s lion, up through her seated figure and across to the tympanum, before mirroring that movement through Juno’s peacock and her more relaxed pose.

Juno’s position also carries a wider mythological meaning. Behind her stand the colossal statues of Minerva and the Three Fates, Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos, installed in 2018 from casts of the original statues once at Stowe. In Roman mythology, even Juno, Queen of the Gods, is subject to the will of the Fates, a theme explored in Virgil’s Aeneid.

This hierarchy is subtly echoed in the architecture. The Three Fates stand upright and larger in scale, while Juno sits slightly to one side. Whether intentional or not, the arrangement reflects a powerful classical idea: that destiny stands above even divine authority.

With Cybele and Juno now reinstated, the South Front portico is complete once more. Their return reunites the full sculptural programme, alongside the freestanding groups of Hercules wrestling Antaeus and Samson defeating the Philistines, returned in 2018, restoring a dialogue between architecture, mythology and landscape interrupted for nearly two centuries.

An Achievement Made Possible by Support

Stowe House Preservation Trust is an independent charity and receives no government funding. Projects like this are only possible thanks to visitor admissions, donations, gifts in wills, retail income, and the generosity of supporters, including the anonymous donor who funded this project.

To support future conservation work, click the link below.

Thanks To

We are deeply grateful to the Getty for their support and our talented contractors – Cliveden Conservation and Sam Steel. This project would not have been possible without the generosity of an anonymous donor – thank you.