Design for Chimney Piece with Charles I Bust 

Design for a Chimney Piece with Charles I Bust. The cast shadows to the left of the vase, bust and fire surround indicate that the surround itself would have stood well forward of the chimney breast to provide sufficient depth for the display of the bust of Charles I. The design may record the bust that Bernini carved of Charles I from a triple portrait by Van Dyck in 1636-37. The bust, which was delivered in April 1637 and universally admired was destroyed in the fire at Whitehall Palace in January 1698.

Gibbons’s sketch of the bust is consistent with several the details of Van Dyck’s triple portrait. This depicts Charles with a similar laced collar and buttoned vest, and with an oval garter medallion suspended from a garter ribbon. However, there exists at Arundel House another bust of Charles I based on Van Dyck’s triple portrait carved by the French sculptor Francois Dieussart in 1636, and Gibbons’s sketch may equally be a version of this example. The special prominence of the bust in the design is underscored by the octagonal framed backing panel (perhaps for a mirror).

The sketched portrait of Charles I in the large oval frame in the overmantel precedes the present drawing (the graphite is concealed by the yellow-green wash), and may have been abandoned when Gibbons decided to design the chimney-piece around an existing carved bust.

Literature: Wren Society, IV, pl. 27, bottom.