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Four large-scale designs for room cornices and entablatures, contemporary with those in 6/1
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Four large-scale designs for room cornices and entablatures, contemporary with those in 6/1
Purpose
Four large-scale designs for room cornices and entablatures, contemporary with those in 6/1
Signed and dated
- 1689
Main Year - 1690-94
Other Years
Notes
These four drawings for cornices and entablatures (110/58, 59, 60 and 62) appear to be preliminary designs for the principal cornices and entablatures of the main rooms of the Privy Garden range. All four are identical in technique and are likely to date near to the early stages of design work for interiors at Hampton Court. They cannot be later than 1694, as 4 (110/62) bears the WM monogram, thus pre-dating Queen's Mary's death in late December that year. The grey-wash technique has affinities with that on the group of five designs for chimney-pieces which, as noted above in 6/1, appears to be earlier than that of the the main group of colour-washed designs. Moreover, this drawing and 110/60 are on identically watermarked paper to 110/32 (ornamental Fleur de Lys over 4WR, with triple lobe motif for the intermediate floret of the crown).
The staining patterns on the drawings provides clues to their grouping before the contents of the volume were reordered, prior to Dance's numbering of the sheets before he gave the volume to Soane in 1817. The staining pattern on 2 (110/59) closely matches that on Hawksmoor's two drawings for the bridge link between Queen's Mary's closet and the Privy Garden in September 1694 (section 5/1, nos. 2, 3; 110/20 and 21). The patterning on these two drawings be connected, in turn, with the staining on Hawksmoor's large-scale elevations for the principal fronts in 1689 (section 4 no. 1; 110/8) and his design for the grotto in the Orangery (section 5 no. 3; 110/17). This demonstrates that Gibbons's drawings and Hawksmoor's were together in the same volume at the time the staining occurred.
The staining patterns on the drawings provides clues to their grouping before the contents of the volume were reordered, prior to Dance's numbering of the sheets before he gave the volume to Soane in 1817. The staining pattern on 2 (110/59) closely matches that on Hawksmoor's two drawings for the bridge link between Queen's Mary's closet and the Privy Garden in September 1694 (section 5/1, nos. 2, 3; 110/20 and 21). The patterning on these two drawings be connected, in turn, with the staining on Hawksmoor's large-scale elevations for the principal fronts in 1689 (section 4 no. 1; 110/8) and his design for the grotto in the Orangery (section 5 no. 3; 110/17). This demonstrates that Gibbons's drawings and Hawksmoor's were together in the same volume at the time the staining occurred.
Level
Group
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
Contents of Four large-scale designs for room cornices and entablatures, contemporary with those in 6/1
- [1] Design for a coved room cornice with large acanthus leaves on the cove and fluting on the face of the corona, c. 1689-91
- [2] Design for a room entablature with a bolection-moulded acanthus frieze and a dentilled cornice, c. 1689-91
- [3] Design for a Corinthian room entablature, possibly for the King's Bedchamber, the frieze with flowers, putti, birds of paradise, ribbons, fronds and acanthus whorls, c. 1689-91
- [4] Design for a room entablature in the Composite order, with paired console brackets framing relief ornaments in the frieze, c. 1689-91