Design for Chimney-Piece with Garlands
Creator(s): Grinling Gibbons 1648-1721
Date: Undated, but probably dating 1689-94
Accession Number: SM 110/33
Dimensions: 375mm x 237mm
Materials: Pen and brown ink over graphite under-drawing with pink, yellow ochre and grey-green wash; on smooth laid white writing 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/OBJECT265
NOTES ON THE ARTWORK
Design for a chimney-piece with garlands. The design presents alternatives for pendant foliage and drapery motifs, hung from a central drapery knot above the picture frame. Characteristically, the top of this central knot reaches into the zone of the cornice. On the left side, bunches of fruit and flowers are attached to a drapery swag, which is drawn across to the right halfway down while the drop hangs vertically alongside the picture frame. On the right, foliate masses hang with two winged putti heads to a ribbon pinned to a nail in the top right-hand corner and hung across from the central knot, where fronds spray out, left and right. This drop is brought round the bottom of the frame as a swag and hangs from its centre above a crown flanked by a cherub’s head. In this right half of the design an oval panel is proposed for the deep frieze above the fire surround, and to its right are further swags and whorls of foliage. The left side of the design in this zone presents a simple rectangular frame.
Literature: Esterly, Gibbons, 1998, p. 105, fig. 79; Wren Society, IV, pl. 33, top.
Digitisation of the Drawings Collection has been made possible through the generosity of the Leon Levy Foundation.
Design for Chimney-Piece with Garlands © Sir John Soane's Museum
