Wall drop with putti tumbling among fruit and flowers
attributed to William Gibbs Rogers (1795-1875)
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
circa 1856 - circa 1875
Materials
Limewood
Measurements
2745 mm (Height)
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Belton House, Lincolnshire
NT 434858.7
Summary
Limewood, stained, carved wall drop with tumbling putti among foliage, flowers and fruit, attributed to William Gibbs Rogers (1795-1875), 19th century. One of two carved wall drops installed in the Saloon at Belton House (see also NT 434858.8). Winged putti tumble from heaven against a festoon suspended from ribbon ties. Of the foliage, flowers and fruit buttercup, phlox, primrose, wheat, cobnut, daisy, tulip, pinecone, catkin, grapevine, pear and peapod can be seen.
Full description
The drops may be by William Gibbs Rogers (1792-1875), a wood carver, restorer and leading Victorian authority on Grinling Gibbons (1648-1721). Rogers worked on the 17th-century carvings at Belton from 1856, also producing his own carvings for the house. Similar drops with putti are installed on the back of Chapel Gallery balcony, facing the Chapel (NT 435167). Putti are a particularly common motif in the baroque and rococo arts, appearing in paintings, prints, woodwork, sculpture and metalwork (see, for example, tumbling putti in a design after Louis-Félix Delarue, British Museum, London 1877,0512.173). Installed in the Saloon at Belton House, these chubby, frisky little putti are whimsical Victorian additions to a scheme of woodcarvings in the style of Grinling Gibbons seen elsewhere in the Saloon, Tyrconnel Room, Chapel Gallery and Tapestry Room at Belton House. Alice Rylance-Watson October 2018
Provenance
Purchased with a grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) from Edward John Peregrine Cust, 7th Baron Brownlow, C. St J. (b.1936) in 1984.
Credit line
Belton House, The Brownlow Collection (acquired with the help of the National Heritage Memorial Fund by the National Trust in 1994)
Makers and roles
attributed to William Gibbs Rogers (1795-1875), woodcarver