BCD SPECIAL REPORT ON HISTORIC CHURCHES 31st ANNUAL EDITION 9 Stone isn’t the only material to be copied. In Queen Anne’s Oratory at Hampton Court, singing cherubs look down from a vaulted lantern, with swirls of foliage and carved decorative ribs, all painted to look like plasterwork. The Chapel Royal at Hampton Court Palace is full of Gibbons’s work. Payments survive for running mouldings as well as the finer work, which includes paired cherubs’ heads supporting the lower parts of the Tudor vault, a fine royal coat of arms, and cornucopiae spilling out ears of wheat and fruit, scrolls and crowns, in addition to the reredos itself. All were part of a grand scheme to transform the chapel in Baroque style for Queen Anne around 1711, complete with wall and ceiling paintings by James Thornhill and Joseph Highmore. From afar the reredos carvings have little definition, but with the aid of a scaffold we see clusters of cherubs’ heads amid festoons of palm fronds, vines and fruits, Turk’s-cap lilies and tulips, with drops, wreaths and swirls of tremendous virtuosity, all hallmarks of the master’s works. These all sit on a base of parquetry of the highest quality, incorporating Baltic oak with dense patterns of medullary rays arranged in alternating directions. Predictably, these initial studies are revealing a myriad of new information. The winged cherubs which carry the Tudor roof are gilded over pine, while the organ, also a Gibbons piece, is in The font at All Hallows by the Tower. (Photo: Lee Prosser) The vaulted lantern of Queen Anne’s Oratory at Hampton Court, probably using recycled elements intended for Whitehall Palace, but including many carvings painted to look like plaster. (Photo: Lee Prosser) The angels on the chapel reredos at Hampton Court. The dark colour and shine are caused by waxes and varnish, complete with a layer of dust. (Photo: Lee Prosser) Ongoing scholarship, and the chance to get up close to Gibbons’s art is showing us that he worked in several types of timber, some of which must have been painted or gilded, and that colour and contrast, though nuanced was an important factor in his creations. LEE PROSSER is curator of historic buildings at Historic Royal Palaces, with responsibility for Kensington Palace, Kew Palace and Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland. He studies historic interiors and has been involved in several conservation projects involving the carvings of Grinling Gibbons. naked oak, but with pierced fretwork backed by maroon-coloured felt – now barely visible with age. The carvings were particularly badly treated in the 1920s, when the Office of Works dipped them repeatedly in glue in an attempt to treat beetle infestation, and probably other chemicals we daren’t think about. Varnishes and waxes have also taken their toll of our appreciation and they now have a dark and shiny appearance. However, there remains much evidence of paint or white and ochre-tinted washes, which have been sampled and promise to unlock more information, about their original appearance but also about the possible use of gold. Cleaning trials have also been undertaken and small (reversible) samples of gouache and tinted wax prepared to show what the reredos may look like one day if a full restoration is ever contemplated. The results would be spectacular. It was always beloved of church guides to point out how the pea pods in Gibbons’s carvings (whether open or closed), denoted whether he had been paid for his work or not. This particular notion has long been scotched, thankfully, and science is putting to rest other myths. His stone carving is now undergoing concerted study, and even within his creations in wood, carvers like Alan Lamb believe that they can identify the hands of his apprentices, who undoubtedly did most of the work.
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