Interior, 1st. floor, drawing-room, detail of carved wooden panel Digital image of D 41661 cn

Description Interior, 1st. floor, drawing-room, detail of carved wooden panel Digital image of D 41661 cn

Date 16/11/1998

Collection Records of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS), Edinbu

Catalogue Number SC 767320

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of D 41661 CN

Scope and Content Detail of Carved Panel above Fireplace in Drawing Room, Drumlanrig Castle, Dumfries & Galloway This late 17th-century oak panel, thought to be the work of the master English wood-carver, Grinling Gibbons, forms the overmantel to the fireplace in the north wall of the drawing room. It is richly carved with leaves, flowers, corn, dead birds and fruits of the countryside. Cascades of more birds, leaves and fruit tumble from the wing tips of two cherubs. The carving is superbly executed and symbolic of the abundance and wealth of the countryside, and hence, by implication, of the household. The drawing room was originally the state dining room, one of three 17th-century interconnecting state apartments on the first floor theoretically reserved for the king or his representative. Here the 1st Duke, as one of the leading political figures in Scotland, entertained fashionable society to lavish banquets, and here wall-carvings depicting the 'fruits of plenty' by the best wood-carver of the day were seen to be appropriate. Drumlanrig Castle, one of the great Renaissance courtyard houses of Scottish domestic architecture, was built between 1679 and 1690 for William Douglas, 1st Duke of Queensberry, on the site of a late 14th-century Douglas stronghold. The castle passed to the Dukes of Buccleuch in 1810, and is now the home of the 9th Duke (11th Duke of Queensberry). It houses many great family treasures and important works of art, including magnificent carvings and a fine collection of paintings. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/767320

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap