A Hellenistic Marble Group of a God and Goddess, probably Rhodian, circa late 2nd/early 1st Century B.C.

the young god seated on a rocky outcrop and gazing at the youthful goddess, his right arm resting on her shoulder, the goddess leaning against him with her legs crossed and wearing a chiton and long himation, her wavy hair parted in the center and bound in a large circular chignon behind, the god seated on his cloak, folds wound around his left arm.

Don Paolo, Prince Borghese (1834-1920), Villa Borghese, Rome
Attilio Simonetti (1843-1925), Via Margutta, Rome
William Waldorf "Willy" Astor (1848-1919), 1st Viscount Astor (1916), Villa Sirena, Sorrento, and Hever Castle, England, acquired from the above circa 1903/1906
Gavin Astor, 2nd Baron Astor of Hever (1918-1984), Hever Castle (Christie’s, London, May 6th, 1982, lot 254, illus.)
Arete. Galerie für antike Kunst, Zurich
acquired from the above by the present owner

Based on a list of purchases for Hever Castle drawn up by William Waldorf Astor himself, the present group can be tentatively identified as one of a group of sculptures acquired by him circa 1903-1906 from the Roman painter and art dealer Attilio Simonetti. One of the entries refers to a "Greek marble statuette group of man + woman / Grey volute column as to base... In my bedroom at Sirena / stood in lake Borghese private garden / 2000 Francs" (S. Dimas, C. Reinsberg, and H. Von Hesberg, Die antikensammlungen von Hever Castle, Cliveden, Bignor Park und Knole [Monumenta artis romanae, vol. XXXVIII], Wiesbaden, 2013, p. 26). The scale of the present object and its quiet evocation of a divine couple would have made it a fitting object for Astor's bedroom at Villa Sirena, his stunningly located Italian retreat overlooking the Bay of Naples.

The information that the group came from the private garden of the Villa Borghese probably came from Simonetti, who is known to have acquired marbles directly from Prince Borghese in the late 19th Century. The Giardino privato was an enclosed area adjacent to the artificial lake. It was not open to the public, unlike the rest of the Borghese Park, and contained several structures, such as porticoes and a tempietto, which would have provided suitable protection from the elements for small-scale marble sculpture. The group does not appear in the list of sculptures recorded in the private garden by Friedrich Matz and F. von Dühn (Antike Bildwerke in Rom, vol. III, Leizpig, 1882, p. 301).

For stylistically related late Hellenistic sculpture from Rhodes see V. Machaira, Hellēnistika glypta tēs Rhodou. Katalogos, Athens, 2011, passim, esp. pls. 80-81 and 128-135. Also see E. Curtius, F. Adler, and G. Treu, eds., Olympia: die Ergebnisse der von dem Deutschen Reich veranstalteten Ausgrabung, vol. III: Die Bildwerke von Olympia in Stein und Thon, Berlin, 1897, p. 222, fig. 248 (American Art Association - Anderson Galleries, New York, The Ercole Canessa Collection, March 29th, 1930, no. 106, illus.), also from Rhodes. Related Hellenistic standing pairs of youthful gods and goddesses, forerunners of the "Orestes and Electra" group, were found at Amphipolis, Eretria, and Varna (for the  latter see S. Reinach, "Aphrodite et Adonis," Gazette des beaux-arts, 1898, cc. 106-118).

For a related Roman group of Hygeia standing with her legs crossed and leaning on a seated figure of the young Asklepios see M. Moltesen et al., Imperial Rome.Catalogue, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, vol. II, Copenhagen, 1995, pp. 173ff. cat. no. 47 (http://arachne.uni-koeln.de/item/objekt/8599).