Design for Chimney-Piece with Battle Relief
Creator(s): Grinling Gibbons 1648-1721
Date: Undated, but within range c.1690 to c.1693
Accession Number: SM 110/35
Dimensions: 458mm x 257mm
Materials: Pen and brown ink with grey washes over graphite under drawing on laid paper
Location: Sir John Soane's Museum
Credit Line (copyright notice for material) : © Sir John Soane's Museum
Online Catalogue Entry : http://collections.soane.org/OBJECT267
NOTES ON THE ARTWORK
Design for a chimney-piece with Battle relief . The technique of the drawing is identical to that of 1 and 3 (110/32 and 36 [Design for a Chimney-Piece with a Plain Fire Surround and Design for a Chimney-Piece with a Portrait Medallion on this website]), 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.
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: [email protected]
Design for Chimney-Piece with Battle Relief © Sir John Soane's Museum
