Saturday 4 April 2009

Baroque Again


The great woodcarver Grinling Gibbons was born on this day in 1648 - in Rotterdam, but he came to England in his teens, so we can claim him for one of our own.

4 comments:

  1. Carving and sculpture are the two arts, crafts call them what you will, that never cease to astound me. Unlike painting if you drop a clanger, you're stuffed.
    The infinite amount of patience required is awe inspiring and the intricacy of Grinlings work is similar to that of the Japanese netsuke carvers.

    Your first post on the Baroque mention Lutyens here is one he did earlier although the end result is more arts and crafts than Baroque. As ever he worked closely with his mate Gertrude who designed a very neat walled garden.

    The law of unintened consequences crept in here, Lutyens used busses, upturned boats, for effect, Morales copied his idea and used it as the basis for his design of the Scottish parliament building, which looks like an explosion in an aluminium can factory.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ah yes Malty, that looks v fine - I've never visited, but I've been round this one. There was nothing old Ned couldn't do (except stop the rain getting in - his buildings are notoriously leaky).

    ReplyDelete
  3. Once again you have spurned the chance to allude to Baroque Obama.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Damn damn damn - what a missed opportunity! Thanks Dearieme.

    ReplyDelete