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Design for an Ornamental Border, Used for the Surround to the General Chart in John Pine's "Tapestry Hangings in the House of Lords" (published 1739)

Hubert-François Gravelotca. 1739

Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
New York, United States

[The central shape and four not quite complete circles (intended for globes) in each corner are cut out.] At the top center of the ornamental framing border (which incorporates scroll-work), there is a diadem made of ship prows; at the bottom center, the head of Neptune with some of his attributes. At the upper right of the ornamental border, the seated figure of Britannia holds a sword and shield to vanquish the figures (at lower right) of Envy (a bare-breasted woman holding a snake), Superstition (a blindfolded figure holding a torch) and Spain (a fallen man, holding a sword, next to a tower and lion). At the upper left, the personification of True Religion (a draped, seated woman holding a book and torch) presides above lightening and t fleeing figures of Hypocrisy, Ignorance and Popery (woman and fox, devil, monk at lower left).

Details

  • Title: Design for an Ornamental Border, Used for the Surround to the General Chart in John Pine's "Tapestry Hangings in the House of Lords" (published 1739)
  • Creator: Hubert-Francois Gravelot
  • Creator Lifespan: 1699/1773
  • Date Created: ca. 1739
  • Physical Dimensions: w609 x h375 cm
  • Type: Drawing
  • Rights: Museum purchase through gift of Mrs. John Innes Kane
  • Medium: Brush and brown ink and brown wash, over gray ink on white laid paper
  • Provenance: Horace Walpole; Barry Delany (L.350)
  • Paper Support: White laid paper in six sections, laid down
  • Inscribed: Inscriptions are barely legible. Inscribed in graphite, lower left: Barry Delany [partly illegible]; lower right: Horace Walpole's Coll.; on verso, also in graphite: Strawberry Hill / Van Dyck / B 1599 D 1640 / 14 Th / B.D.
  • Exhibitions: London, England - Victoria and Albert Museum, "Rococo: Art and Design in Hogarth's England," May 16 - September 30, 1984.
  • Dimensions: 37.5 x 60.9cm (14 3/4 x 24in.)

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