id: 394536 accession number: 1943.654.e share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1943.654.e updated: 2023-08-24 01:39:28.161000 Carving from an Overmantel, c. 1675–1677. Grinling Gibbons (British, 1648–1721). Lindenwood; The Cleveland Museum of Art, Grace Rainey Rogers Fund 1943.654.e title: Carving from an Overmantel title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 1675–1677 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: state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS --- 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 --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1943.654.e/1943.654.e_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1943.654.e/1943.654.e_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1943.654.e/1943.654.e_full.tif