The Work of Grinling Gibbons

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.