Museum Management and Curatorship,Vol. 18, No. 2, pp. 183–192, 1999 2000 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.Pergamon

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World of Museums

Elias Ashmole, Grinling Gibbons and Three Picture Frames

Sir Thomas Molyneux (1661–1733) wrote from London to his brother in Dublin,17 July 1683, concerning recent developments in Oxford, not least the newAshmolean Museum which had been opened 21 May that year in the presenceof James, Duke of York, the younger brother and heir to King Charles II:

… It consists only of these three rooms, one a-top the other, and a large staircase.The Museum Ashmoleanum is the highest: the walls of which are all hung roundwith John Tradescant’s rarities, and several others of Mr. Ashmol’s own gathering;his picture hangs up at one end of the room, with a curious carved frame aboutit, of Gibbins his work.1

Elias Ashmole had opened negotiations with the University of Oxford in 1675with the view to endowing it with the famous collections assembled by theTradescants during the first half of the seventeenth century in South Lambeth,London, and the tortuous history of the collections assembled by both the Trade-scants and Ashmole himself is covered in detail by the publications of ArthurMacGregor (1983) and R.F. Ovenell (1986).2 A fire in Ashmole’s Middle Templechambers, 26 January 1679, destroyed the bulk of Ashmole’s own collectionsand library which he had assembled to date and, no doubt, injected a note ofurgency into the construction of the [Old] Ashmolean Museum which wasbegun in Oxford, alongside the Sheldonian Theatre, later that year. In March1681 King Charles II visited Oxford and inspected the progress being made withthe construction work, while 12 October 1682 the woodcarver, Grinling Gib-bons (1648–1721), wrote to Elias Ashmole asking him to cast his horoscope:

as I haen onder taken a consarne of great Consequens and in order theer onto senta fackto [?factor] last monday beiand seas I would fain knouw waser I and mypartners thoer in Consarnd, shall haen sucksess or no …3

Gibbon’s horoscope, duly cast by Ashmole and headed “Mr. Grinling Gibbonsthe Excellent Carver”, is preserved in the Bodleian Library, Oxford (MS. Ashmole243 Fol.330v), and this presumably involved a commercial transaction. Thus thecombination of Molyneux’s letter of 17 July 1683 and the documented businessrelationship between Gibbons and Ashmole dating from October 1682 demon-strates beyond reasonable doubt that the frame ornamenting the portrait nowin the Ashmolean Museum may be closely associated with the earlier pro-ductions of Grinling Gibbons. Furthermore, on the basis of the internal evidenceoffered by the painting itself and Ashmole’s reference to it 2 February 1683,4

this portrait (attributed subsequently to John Riley) must have been painted after16 November 1680 and before 2 February 1683.5 At this time in the late 17thcentury it can be safely assumed that an elaborate frame of this quality (andexpense) would have been begun only when the final size of the canvas and,

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probably, the basic composition of the painting, had been fixed. Consequentlythe actual execution of this frame can with confidence be narrowed down to1681–82, and by the same token it provides an important fixed point in theearly career of Gibbons.

However, there remain the related problems posed by the physical conditionof this frame today and, if it is accepted that it was supplied to Ashmole byGibbons in 1681–82, the precise extent of workshop participation in its designand execution. In respect of the former, Robert Plot was appointed Keeper ofthe Ashmolean collection in 1683 and with his Under Keeper, Edward Lhwyd,prepared its first catalogue in 1685. In it the frame of the portrait of Ashmoleis described as carved limewood:

[A no. 730] Pictura venustissima ornatissimi viri Dni Eliae Ashmole hujus Musaeiinstructoris munificentissimi, Limbo e Tilia arte prorus Thaumaturgica caelato, ador-nata

in contrast to the portraits of King Charles II and King James II (see below)which are both described in the 1685 catalogue as carved from limewood andgilt. Examination of the surface of the frame ornamenting the portrait of Ash-mole reveals that the present oil gilding has been crudely applied over numerouscracks, losses and other old damages, and that patches of flaking have beenretouched using bronze paint. When originally received by the University ofOxford in 1683 and seen by Sir Thomas Molyneux the limewood carving wouldhave been brilliantly fresh and very pale in colour, and the gilding visible todaymay have been applied in 1729–30 when, after a period of relative neglect, theVice Chancellor’s accounts include the sum of 00-17-06 in respect of “Refreshingand guilding Pictures”.6 The frame is surmounted by Ashmole’s arms and hismotto—“EX VNO OMNIA”—but MacGregor has pointed out that the field ofthe Dugdale arms (quartered with those of Ashmole) should be argent but hasbeen gilded, perhaps during the “regilding” (sic) of the frame.7 Although still avery handsome and historically important frame, and long recognised as havingbeen supplied by Grinling Gibbons, its decidedly unsatisfactory appearancetoday has discouraged more general recognition of its significance, while thetask of stripping it to recover what remains of its original surface is one thatcannot be undertaken lightly.

Nevertheless, this Ashmolean picture frame, together with its companions(see below) were curious omissions from the valuable exhibition Grinling Gib-bons and the Art of Carving organised for the Victoria and Albert Museum,London (October 1998–January 1999), by David Esterly, who also wrote thebook which accompanied it.8 In it Esterly limits his discussion of Elias Ashmoleto the horoscope of 1682 and omits any mention of the Ashmolean Museumframes or, indeed, transportable picture frames as against carved surroundswhich form fixed components of architectural ensembles, although the Ashmo-lean frames are included by Macquoid and Edwards in their dictionary of Englishfurniture (1954).9 This may be due, at least in part, to the almost total lack ofdocumentation of many aspects of Gibbon’s productions, but, on the otherhand, it is precisely this factor which makes the documented frame adorningthe portrait of Ashmole the more important. The pierced picture frames enclos-ing the portraits in the Carved Room at Petworth, as against the spectacularcarved double surrounds enclosing them, created by Gibbons for the 6th Duke

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of Somerset (payment 1692), are totally different in type. These are very highquality repetitive abstract pierced carvings forming ‘cushion moulding’ framesand the question arises as to whether they are original to the scheme and fromthe workshop of Gibbons or by the highly-talented local carver, John Selden,who is documented as making picture frames for Petworth,10 or in fact his-toricist frames executed later c1790 when the present Carved Room was createdfrom earlier components. Stylistically the Ashmole frame fits well into the chron-ology set out by Esterly, while the prominent use of gathered drapery anticipateselements in several of the designs he executed for Hampton Court (1689–94)now in Sir John Soane’s Museum, London, and in three Kensington Palace over-mantles also dating from the early 1690s.11

Rather less ambitious are the limewood frames carved with foliage, fruit andflowers, and gilt, in the Ashmolean Museum, which adorn the oval portraits ofKing Charles II and King James II, by John Riley. Of different designs, these aredescribed in Plot’s 1685 catalogue:

[A no. 731] Effigies Serenissimi Principis Caroli 2di Regis Angl. etc. Limbo e Tliaelegantissime caelato ac deaurato, adornata

and

[A no. 732] Effigies Serenissimi Principis Jacobi 2di Regis Ang. etc. simili Limboadornata

respectively. These portraits had been included by Ashmole in his supplemen-tary gift to the Museum and in a loose memorandum, written by Plot and refer-ring to items received during the year 1686–7, are listed amongst the donations:

Two excellent Pictures & Frames, of King Charles 2nd & King James 2nd by thesame [Elias Ashmole Esq.]12

Both paintings have subsequently been attributed with confidence to JohnRiley, and their frames to Grinling Gibbons, at least in part by virtue of theirassociation with the much larger portrait of Ashmole. The gilding, however, ofthese two oval frames is different in character to that on the frame of the portraitof Ashmole, and has been applied direct onto heavy size in the late 17th centuryDutch manner. A bill in the Ashmolean Museum, headed “Work Done at yeMusaeum Nov 22n 1732 by Rd. Withington” includes the item:

For new Backing Cleaning & Mending the Pictures & Frames of King Charles &King James 1-0-013

and indicates that these frames already required attention less than half a centurylater. Examination of their surfaces today reveals extensive shrinkage, fissuringand curled flaking due to shrinkage of the size, with some gilding extendingover old damages, but considerable areas of the gilding would appear to dateback to the original surface finish. The frame of the portrait of King Charles IIis ornamented with foliage, fruit and flowers carved in the round and arrangedloosely as a naturalistic garland on a simple curved reverse moulding whichprovides the sight edge, while that of King James II is more ambitious. It includessimilar elements, smaller in scale, bunched on the sides and bottom, and sur-mounted by crossed sheafs of laurel and palm, all combined with gathered drap-ery which also provides the sight edge. The former frame displays the vitalityand inventiveness of Gibbons if not necessarily his personal hand, and it is prob-

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1. Portrait of Elias Ashmole, by John Riley, oil on canvas, 124 3 101 cm., AshmoleanMuseum, Oxford, presented by the sitter in 1683. The frame (188 3 148 cm. overall),carved by Grinling Gibbons in limewood, 1681–82, has been subsequently gilded, poss-

ibly in 1729/30. (Reproduced by courtesy of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford).

ably best categorised as the product of his workshop, but the frame of KingJames II, notwithstanding the uncomfortable surface condition, invites closercomparisons with the Gibbons designs exploiting gathered draperies datingfrom the early 1690s, noted above. However, its receipt in Oxford in 1686–7provides a terminus ante quem for its execution. On the other hand the charac-

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2. Portrait of King Charles II, by John Riley or from his studio, oil on canvas, 76 3 61cm. overall, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, presented by Elias Ashmole, 1686/87. Theframe (100 3 88 cm. overall), carved in limewood in the workshop of Ginling Gibbonsand gilded contemporaneously, can be dated to not long before the end of 1684. KingCharles visited the construction work of the [Old] Ashmolean Museum in March 1681.

(Reproduced by courtesy of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford).

ter of this frame, and its greater panache in comparison to that adorning KingCharles II, suggests that it is slightly later in date than the latter and may havebeen executed after James II’s accession in February 1685. Given the increas-ingly fraught political situation which rapidly built up from soon after the suc-cession of the Roman Catholic James II (revolt of the Duke of Monmouth) thegift by Ashmole to Oxford University of these two portraits of his royal patrons,at this juncture, may not have been entirely altruistic.

On this basis it may be suggested that the frame made for the portrait of King

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3. Portrait of King James II, by John Riley or from his studio, oil on canvas, 76 3 61cm. overall, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, presented by Elias Ashmole, 1686/87. Theframe (101 3 93 cm. overall), carved by Grinling Gibbons or to his design in his work-shop and gilded contemporaneously, can be dated to 1686/7. As Duke of York, KingJames II had attended the Opening of the Ashmolean Museum, 21 May 1683. (Reproduced

by courtesy of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford).

Charles II was probably supplied from Gibbon’s workshop during the periodbefore the end of 1684 (? to commemorate King Charles II’s visit to the [Old]Ashmolean Museum when under construction in March 1681), while both theportrait of King James II and its frame were ordered after his accession, earlyin 1685, to provide an appropriate pendant.

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Footnotes

1. Josten, C.H., Elias Ashmole, Oxford, 1966, 4, pp. 1727–8.2. MacGregor, Arthur (ed), Tradescant’s Rarities: Essays on the Foundation of the Ashmolean

Museum 1683 with a Catalogue of the Surviving Collections, Oxford (Clarendon Press), 1983;Ovenell, R.F., The Ashmolean Museum 1683–1894, Oxford (Clarendon Press), 1986.

3. Oxford University Archives, Bodleian Library (MS. Ashmole 243), supplied by Dr. Kurt Josten toRalph Edwards and quoted by him (The Shorter Dictionary of English Furniture, London, 1964,p. 655).

4. Josten, op.cit., 1966, 4, pp. 1712 & 1727: “My picture (after sent to Oxford) came home” quotedby MacGregor (op. cit., p. 312, note 176, who ventures the suggestion that this may have beenafter framing by Gibbons.

5. MacGregor, op. cit., p. 312.6. Ovenell, op. cit., p. 117 (the frames of the portraits of Charles II and James II were repaired

in 1732).7. MacGregor, op. cit., p. 312, note 168.8. Esterly, D., Grinling Gibbons and the Art of Carving, London (V&A Publications), 1998, ISBN:

185177 2553.9. Macquoid, P. & Edwards, R., Dictionary of English Furniture, London, 1954, 2, p. 241; 3, p.

23, figs. 16 & 17; and retained by Edwards, R., op cit., p. 655.10. Beard, G., Craftsmen and Interior Decoration in England 1660–1820, Edinburgh, 1981, p.

139.11. Esterly, D., op. cit., pp. 105ff and 135, & figs. 79, 82 & 109.12. Ashmolean Museum Library Manuscripts 1 (12).13. Ovenell, op. cit., 1966, p. 132.

Photo Credits

Reproduced by courtesy of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

Peter Cannon-Brookes

Paul Mellon (1907–1999): A Personal Appreciation

Paul Mellon (Figure 1), one of the greatest art collectors and philanthropists ofthe twentieth century, died at Oak Spring, Upperville, Virginia, on 2 February1999, aged 91. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 11 June 1907.

I was introduced to him by Basil Taylor in the summer of 1964, when I wasoffered the curatorship of his collection. I had been at the Tate Gallery for tenyears and felt the need for a change, so, in January 1965, I set sail with my wifeand two small children (and a collie dog) for the United States. We were basedin Washington DC. There was the possibility of a new gallery of British art beingendowed and built at Yale, Mellon’s old university, where he had read Englishunder the great Chauncey B. Tinker from 1926–29. He then went to Clare Col-lege, Cambridge, and if he found the teaching there less inspiring, enjoyed row-ing for his college and riding; he graduated in 1931. He was later to become aracehorse owner and breeder, winning the Derby with Mill Reef. Of Irishdescent, he was nevertheless, a keen Anglophile and, although born to greatwealth, was an extremely modest, private man. He had been destined to jointhe family bank, but asked his father, Andrew W. Mellon, if he might pursue