Grinling GibbonsBritish, 1648–1721Overmantel Decoration
Can I see it?
Yes, on view now
Where is “Overmantel Decoration” now? The Cleveland Museum of Art, 203A British Painting and Decorative Arts, Cleveland. Yes, on view now. Checked September 29, 2026.
On public display.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the sculpture
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.
Read on
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.
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Details
- Accession number
- 1943.654
In the catalog
Sources
- The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Image: The Cleveland Museum of Art — Museum open access
