Ah, the fun ways the rich waste their money! I confess, I would probably do something equally lavish as having a staircase that leads down into oblivion, while the mouth of Hell belches ash and smoke billowing past the borders of a baroque mural. This piece, located at the remarkable intact Elizabethan structure of Burghley House, came from the 18th century master Antonio Verrio. The house is a treasure trove of paintings, sculpture and other fine art from the 16th century and later. You can take a 360 tour of the Hell Staircase here. How many famous figures can you see? I found a Sybil, Hercules, Cupid, Laocoön and his sons, Hades and Persephone, Orpheus and Eurydice, Medusa, Hephaestus(?) and countless others.
