The Work of Grinling Gibbons

by Geoffrey Beard

This magnificently illustrated book documents the career of the virtuoso seventeenth-century sculptor, the finest woodcarver ever to appear in Europe. Grinling Gibbons (1648-1721) combined in his work naturalism – it was said he could carve a leaf barely thicker than the original – with a lively and graceful composition that is unmistakably Baroque. His carvings – in wood and stone – are to be found in St. Paul's Cathedral, Hampton Court, Windsor Castle, Kensington Palace, Blenheim Palace, and in other country houses and churches throughout England and Scotland.

215 pages, Hardcover

First published June 15, 1990