Carved Frame
Creator(s): Circle of Grinling Gibbons (likely by Laurens Vandermeulen, one of Gibbons' Flemish assistants).
Date: Late 17th or early 18th century
Accession Number: 34.2
Dimensions: L x W | 177.8 × 121.9 cm (70 × 48 in.)
Materials: Wood
Location: Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens 4155 Linnean Ave NW, Washington DC 20008
Credit Line (copyright notice for material) : Bequest of Marjorie Merriweather Post, 1973. Copyright Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens.
Online Catalogue Entry : https://www.hillwoodmuseum.org/collection/item/34.2
NOTES ON THE ARTWORK
The frame has a rectangular opening now set with a more recent inner frame with an oval opening containing a portrait of Ella Letitia Merriweather Post (51.150). At the top is an eagle with outspread wings is poised on a cluster of leaves and flowers and with a bower of leaves back and over him. At each of the upper corners is a perched bird stretching his neck downward. At the right and left sides are large clusters of leaves, fruits and flowers, the forward ones carved in the round, the others in relief. At the bottom of the frame is a fishnet scoop with fish and flowers while at either side is a cluster of shell-fish, all carved in the round or very high relief.
