Misericord (bracket under a pew seat) carved by Gibbons, Cartmel Priory Church, Cumbria
Misericord (bracket under a pew seat) carved by Gibbons, Cartmel Priory Church, Cumbria
Master wood carver Grinling Gibbons (4 April
1648 - 3 August 1721) was born in
Rotterdam in the Netherlands, and moved to
England in about 1667.
Gibbons was an extremely talented wood carver; indeed, some have said he was the finest of all time. The diarist
John Evelyn first discovered Gibbons' talent by chance in 1671. Evelyn, from whom Gibbons rented a cottage near Evelyn's home in Sayes Court, Deptford (today part of south-east London), wrote the following:
- I saw the young man at his carving, by the light of a candle. I saw him to be engaged on a carved representation of
Tintoretto's "Crucifixion", which he had in a frame of his own making.
Later that same evening, Evelyn described what he had seen to Sir Christopher Wren.
Wren and Evelyn then introduced him to King Charles II who gave him his first
commission - still resting in the dining room of Windsor Castle.
Of Gibbons Horace Walpole later wrote:
- There is no instance of a man before Gibbons who gave wood the loose and airy lightness of flowers, and chained together
the various productions of the elements with the free disorder natural to each species.
He was employed by Wren to work on St Paul's Cathedral and later was appointed as
master carver to George I. Many fine examples of his work can still be seen in
the churches around London - particularly the choir stalls and organ case of St Paul's Cathedral.
His association with Deptford is commemorated locally: Grinling Gibbons Primary School is in Clyde Street, near the site of
Sayes Court, and St. Nicholas' Church has The
Valley of the Dry Bones, one of Gibbons' works, permanently on display.
The famous sculptor of Brussels Peter van Dievoet had collaborated with Grinling Gibbons, but went back to Brussels after the revolution of 1688.
He is buried at St Paul's, Covent Garden, London.
Very little is known about the first twenty years of Grinling Gibbons' life: He was born in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and it is
thought that his father may have been the Englishman Samuel Gibbons, who worked under Inigo
Jones, but even two of his closest acquaintances, the portrait painter Thomas Murray and the diarist John Evelyn, cannot
agree on how he came to be introduced to Charles II. Nevertheless, by 1680 he was known as the "King's Carver", and carried out
exquisite work for St Paul's Cathedral, the Palace of Windsor, and the Earl of Essex's house at Cassiobury. His carving was so
fine that it was said a pot of carved flowers above his house in London would tremble from the motion of passing coaches. He was
a Quaker.
There are still direct descendants of Gibbons in the UK today who have followed the family tradition of wood carving down
through 13 generations. One male member produces fine English rocking horses and works to commissioned carvings and restorations.
His carvings can be viewed in Ironbridge, Shropshire, UK. The myth about the pea pods is wrong and only a myth. The myth states
that Gibbons would include a carved a pea pod in his work and then carve the pea pod open once he had been paid, showing each
pea. If the pea pod was left shut it showed that he had not been paid for the work. The myth is wrong because he would not have
left his carvings in situ (that would have taken months to complete) if he hadn't been paid. His work includes 99% of the time
(with the exception of religious carvings) a 5 petal flower like a Periwinkle or a Tudor rose. It is the crest still used by his
modern descendant today.
The name Grinling is formed from sections of two family names.
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