id: 123424 accession number: 1943.654 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1943.654 updated: 2023-08-23 20:21:17.692000 Overmantel Decoration, c. 1675–77. Grinling Gibbons (British, 1648–1721). Lindenwood; part 1: 69.3 x 178.4 cm (27 5/16 x 70 1/4 in.); part 2: 164.5 x 27.3 cm (64 3/4 x 10 3/4 in.); part 3: 177.8 x 26.7 cm (70 x 10 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Grace Rainey Rogers Fund 1943.654 title: Overmantel Decoration title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 1675–77 creation date earliest: 1675 creation date latest: 1677 current location: 203A British Painting and Decorative Arts creditline: Grace Rainey Rogers Fund copyright: --- culture: England, 17th century (Charles II) technique: lindenwood department: European Painting and Sculpture collection: Sculpture type: Sculpture find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Grinling Gibbons (British, 1648–1721) - artist --- measurements: Part 1: 69.3 x 178.4 cm (27 5/16 x 70 1/4 in.); Part 2: 164.5 x 27.3 cm (64 3/4 x 10 3/4 in.); Part 3: 177.8 x 26.7 cm (70 x 10 1/2 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Consuming Passions: The Art of Food and Drink opening date: 1983-07-26T04:00:00 Consuming Passions: The Art of Food and Drink. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 26-October 9, 1983). title: British Gallery Reinstallation (June 2020) opening date: 2020-06-30T04:00:00 British Gallery Reinstallation (June 2020). The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * No legacy exhibitions. --- PROVENANCE --- fun fact: The swags of fruit and foliage featured in this wooden overmantel decoration evoke the bounty of the English countryside. digital description: The arrangement of architectural elements within grand interior spaces in the late 1600s and early 1700s emphasized symmetry and height. Decorative elements such as elaborately carved mantels, mirrors, paintings, and applied wall decorations were often stacked to achieve a visual focal point at one or both ends of the room. This particular overmantel decoration once hung above the fireplace in the Green Drawing Room of the Earl of Essex at Cassiobury in Watford, near London. In 1823, the British painter William Henry Hunt (1790–1864) produced a watercolor of the drawing room which featured this overmantel decoration.

Grinling Gibbons was born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, of English parents. After training there as an artist, he came to England in the 1660s and soon began to work as a sculptor of interior ornament, particularly in wood. One of his first large-scale decorative projects was the series of interiors at Cassiobury House. wall description: The arrangement of architectural elements within grand interior spaces in the late 1600s and early 1700s emphasized symmetry and height. Decorative elements such as elaborately carved mantels, mirrors, paintings, and applied wall decorations were often stacked to achieve a visual focal point at one or both ends of the room.

While the virtuoso carving of Grinling Gibbons’s wooden overmantel decoration features swags of fruit and foliage evoking the bounty of the English countryside, decorative motifs in some cases reflected the political leanings of their owners. The mantel and carved decoration on the wall above exhibit earlier Baroque influences favored by King George II (reigned 1727–1760). The mirror, with its carved plumage referencing the emblem of the Prince of Wales, alludes to the more modern French rococo taste of his son, the future George III (reigned 1760–1820). Such a combination might have been seen in the stately home of an aristocrat eager to support both sides of the political spectrum. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Esterly, David. Grinling Gibbons and the Art of Carving. London: V&A Publishing, 1998. page number: Mentioned P 183, cat. no. 115 url: http://library.clevelandart.org/opac/?func=find-b&find_code=OCL&submit=Search&request=862221831 Wilcop, Mary, Karen Bishop, Beth M. Edelstein, Colleen Snyder, and Marcus Brathwaite. "Tilia and Tilt-A-Jet: Abrasive Jet-machining Towards the Treatment and Re-mounting of a Grinling Gibbons Overmantel. Wooden Artifacts Group Postprints (2018). page number: pp. 51-65 url: "Conservation. 17th Century Meets 21st: To restore a 17th-century wood carving and simplify its installation in the new British gallery. conservators collaborated with CWRU Sears think[box].” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 60, no. 2 (March/April 2020): 38-39. page number: Reproduced: P. 38; Mentioned: P. 38-39. url: Grinling Gibbons Society, Grinling Gibbons Online, accessed 7/2022. page number: url: https://grinling-gibbons.org/artworks/overmantel-decoration/ --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1943.654/1943.654_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1943.654/1943.654_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1943.654/1943.654_full.tif