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[4] Design for a chimney-piece with a tall, arched overmantel panel containing a sketch of a standing figure, bordered by a drapery swag, and with a vase and a crowned St George medallion on the mantel shelf
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Reference number
SM, volume 110/39
Purpose
[4] Design for a chimney-piece with a tall, arched overmantel panel containing a sketch of a standing figure, bordered by a drapery swag, and with a vase and a crowned St George medallion on the mantel shelf
Aspect
Elevation, mostly unfinished on right side
Scale
Not indicated, but about 1 inch to 1 foot
Inscribed
In ink by Dance at bottom right, Gd, and by C19 hand, to right, (39)
Signed and dated
- Undated, but datable 1689-94
Medium and dimensions
Pen and russet-brown ink with green, grey-green,light blue and yellow washes, over graphite under drawing, with additions in graphite, and with later re-drawing of baseline and verticals of plinths in black ink; on laid paper, with pinkish brown blotching and staining in top 45mm of sheet, and with 6mm repair strip in wove paper at bottom, probably 1850; 459 x 225
Hand
Gibbons
Watermark
'Strasbourg Bend' / AJ (i.e., crest with diagonal bar of four parallel lines, surmounted by fleur-de-lys)
Notes
The fire surround of this design would have been marble, and the vase on the mantelshelf (touched with light blue wash) real glass or ceramic. However, the other relief decoration of the overmantel would almost certainly have been in limewood. The fronds, drapery and drop of fruit and flowers are connected as a single motif and are uncoloured, as was usual for Gibbons's limewood. The result would have been a relatively subdued colour scheme of white marble, near white limewood and a pale green wall covering on the overmantel.
Like other drawings in this group, the design includes the main room cornice, drawn here without hesitation as a large cove beneath a corona and cyma moulding, like the executed cornices in several of the smaller rooms in the king's and queen's apartments. Fire surround and overmantel are now brought together as a single feature of the room interior: a complete chimney-piece bay, reaching from floor to ceiling. The fire surround and its mantel shelf are steps in the progression upwards rather than self-contained units, to which an overmantel is added.
In technique this drawing, like others in the group, shows complete mastery of light and dark, through cast shadow and relief shading.
Like other drawings in this group, the design includes the main room cornice, drawn here without hesitation as a large cove beneath a corona and cyma moulding, like the executed cornices in several of the smaller rooms in the king's and queen's apartments. Fire surround and overmantel are now brought together as a single feature of the room interior: a complete chimney-piece bay, reaching from floor to ceiling. The fire surround and its mantel shelf are steps in the progression upwards rather than self-contained units, to which an overmantel is added.
In technique this drawing, like others in the group, shows complete mastery of light and dark, through cast shadow and relief shading.
Literature
Wren Society, vol. IV, pl. 31, top
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