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[2] Design for chimney-piece with a relief of a Roman battle scene over the fire surround and a portrait frame in the overmantel, surrounded by swags of drapery, fruit, flowers and other motifs
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Reference number
SM, volume 110/35
Purpose
[2] Design for chimney-piece with a relief of a Roman battle scene over the fire surround and a portrait frame in the overmantel, surrounded by swags of drapery, fruit, flowers and other motifs
Aspect
Elevation, complete except for right half of overmantel surround
Scale
About 1 inch to 1 foot
Inscribed
In ink by Dance, bottom right, Gd, and in a C19 hand, (35)
Signed and dated
- Undated, but within range c.1690 to c.1693
Medium and dimensions
Pen and brown ink with grey washes over graphite under drawing on laid paper, top 40 mm with pinkish brown staining and blotching, and the paper eroded in placed 458 x 257
Watermark
Countermark: PVL (for Piet van der Ley)
Notes
The technique of the drawing is identical to that of 1 and 3 (110/32 and 36), although each is drawn to a slightly different scale. The drapery is made to fit precisely within the frame of the overmantel and is overlapped by the ribbons from which all the decorative features are hung. Gibbons probably intended to execute this entire relief in limewood, as a bravura exercise in trompe l'oeil carving.
Literature
H. Avray Tipping, 1914, p. 89 Wren Society, IV, pl. 35, top; H. Avray Tipping, Grinling Gibbons and the woodwork of his age (1648-1720), 1914, fig. 82
Level
Drawing
Digitisation of the Drawings Collection has been made possible through the generosity of the Leon Levy Foundation
If you have any further information about this object, please contact us: drawings@soane.org.uk