[6] Design for a chimney-piece with a trophy of arms in an overmantel niche, flanked by a tall obelisk, garlanded with ribbons, fruit and flowers, and held by two climbing putti; and with a WM monogram in the frieze

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English Baroque Drawings: architecture, sculpture and garden design
- Hampton Court Palace
  - Designs for chimney-pieces, room cornices and entablatures, door cases and internal wall elevations, c.1689-1694, mostly by Grinling Gibbons
    - Thirteen designs for tall and richly sculpted chimney-pieces, in a variety of wash colours; probably for principal state rooms

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Reference number

SM, volume 110/41

Purpose

[6] Design for a chimney-piece with a trophy of arms in an overmantel niche, flanked by a tall obelisk, garlanded with ribbons, fruit and flowers, and held by two climbing putti; and with a WM monogram in the frieze

Aspect

Elevation, incomplete on right

Scale

Not indicated, but just under 1 inch to 1 foot

Inscribed

In ink by George Dance, at bottom right, Gd, and to right by a C19 hand, (40)

Signed and dated

Undated, but in period 1689-94

Medium and dimensions

Pen and russet brown ink, over graphite under drawing, with yellow ochre, pink-brown, lime-green and grey washes, and ruled graphite shading on face of obelisk; later black ink redrawing of baseline; on laid paper, laid down; with pinkish-brown staining and blotting in top 40 mm of sheet and some cracking of paper; 8 mm repair strip in wove paper at bottom of sheet, probably 1850; 451 x 245

Hand

Gibbons

Watermark

'Strasbourg bend' (shield with diagonal band in four parallel lines, surmounted by a fleur-de-lys), over 'AJ'

Notes

This is an extraordinarily ambitious proposal, requiring virtuoso carving for the figures, swags and trophy motif in the overmantel. Gibbons has drawn a full cornice above the chimney-piece bay, instead of the coved version found in most rooms in the king's apartments. The cornice profile is that used most often for the plainer Doric or Ionic orders, rather than the Corinthian or Composite (compare 6/2, no. 2, above; 110/59), and Gibbons has not decorated it with relief carving; nor has he chosen to apply relief ornament to the frieze (as on 6/2, nos. 1, 4; 110/58 and 60). He excludes this possibility by drawing a WM monograph in gilded intertwined leaves in the centre of the frieze. The emphasis is on plainness and severity, in keeping with the martial theme of the overmantel. This theme pervades every detail, from the garlanded obelisk (triumph and eternity) to the small George and the dragon motif on the frieze of the pilaster of the fire surround.

Literature

Wren Society, vol. IV, pl. 36, top

Level

Drawing

Exhibition history

Grinling Gibbons and the Art of Carving, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 22 October 1998 - 24 February 1999
The Genius of Grinling Gibbons: from Journeyman to Kings Carver, Fairfax House, York, 14 April - 14 September 2018

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