Design for Chimney-Piece with Portrait Medallion
Creator(s): Grinling Gibbons 1648-1721
Date: Undated, but probably near beginning of period c. 1689-94
Accession Number: SM 110/36
Dimensions: 466mm x 285mm
Materials: Pen and brown ink with grey washes, over graphite under drawing, with some additions in graphite; 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/OBJECT270
Design for Chimney-Piece with Portrait Medallion © Sir John Soane's Museum
NOTES ON THE ARTWORK
Design for a chimney-piece with portrait medallion. Compositionally, this design is closest to 110/32 [Design for Chimney-Piece with Plain Fire Surround on this website]. The cresting is surmounted by an acanthus whorl (only the left half of which is shown) in a manner reminiscent of Gibbons’s reredos carving at St. James’s Piccadilly (mid-1680s). The figure in the large portrait medallion appears to be in the garb of a classical figure, possibly a philosopher.
Literature: Wren Society, vol. IV, pl. 32, bottom.
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]
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Design for Chimney-Piece with Portrait Medallion © Sir John Soane's Museum
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