Figure

This figure of the Roman god Mars (the god of war) is paired with a figure of the Roman goddess Minerva (the goddess of wisdom) (Museum no. W.13-1953). They were carved in the Southern Netherlands in about 1700, probably for use in a large public building. Similar figures representing such concepts as 'Government' or 'Justice' are known. When they came to Britain is not known, but the donor recorded the story that they came from Ansley Hall in Warwickshire, where they formed part of a chimneypiece. As Ansley was originally an eighteenth-century house, it is likely that these formed part of an antiquarian chimneypiece put into the house in the nineteenth century