Statue Group In Circular Garden 200 Metres West Of Rothamsted Manor House

The statue group in the circular garden, located 200 metres west of Rothamsted Manor House, is a garden statue created in 1908 by Sir Charles Lawes-Wittewronge, the then owner of Rothamsted Manor. This monumental group sculpture, inspired by the Farnese Bull, is designed in a Hellenistic style and made of white marble. Titled "The Death of Dirce," it stands approximately 5 metres high on an oval plinth that is about one and a half metres tall and features a moulded base. The sculpture depicts three figures engaged in a dramatic struggle with a bull, with their names inscribed in Greek on a rocky base scattered with armour. Dirke is portrayed as a semi-nude captive on the back of the bull, while Zithos attacks the bull with a hooked pike and Amphion wrestles with it from below using a rope. The statue was exhibited in Rome in 1911.