GIBBONS, Grinling (1648-1721), a celebrated English wood-carver, was born in 1648, according to some authorities of Dutch parents at Rotterdam, and according to others of English parents at London. By the former he is said to have come to London after the great fire in 1666. He early displayed great cleverness and ingenuity in his art, on the strength of which he was recommended by Evelyn to Charles II., who employed him in the execution both of statuary and of ornamental cafving in wood. In statuary one of his principal works is a life-size bronze statue in the court of Whitehall, representing James II. in the dress of a Roman emperor, and he also designed tne base of the statue of Charles I. at Charing Cross. It is, however, chiefly as an engraver in wood that he has acquired a reputation. He was employed to execute the ornamental carving for the chapel at Windsor, the foliage and festoons in the choir of St Paul’s, the baptismal fonts in St James’s, and an immense quantity of ornamental work at Burleigh, Chatsworth, and other aristocratic mansions. The finest of all his productions iu this style is believed to be the ceiling which he devised for a room at Petworth. His subjects are chiefly birds, flowers, foliage, fruit, and lace, and many of his works, for delicacy and elaboration of details, and truthfulness of imitation, have never been surpassed. He, however, sometimes wasted his ingenuity on trifling subjects: many of hi3 flowers used to move on their stems like their natural prototypes when shaken by a breeze. In 1714 Gibbons was appointed master carver in wood to George I. He died at London August 3, 1721....
GIBBONS, Orlando (1583-1625), like Johann Sebastian Bach, was the most illustrious of a family of musicians all more or less able. We know of at least three generations of musical Gibbons, for Orlando’s father, William Gibbons, having been one of the waits of Cambridge, may be assumed to have acquired some proficiency in the art. His three sons and at least one of his grandsons inherited and further developed his talent. The eldest, Edward, was made bachelor of music at Cambridge, and successively held important musical appointments at the cathedrals of Bristol and Exeter; Ellis, the second son, was organist of Salisbury Cathedral, and is the composer of two madrigals in the collection known as the The Triumphs of Oriana. Orlando Gibbons, the youngest and by far the most celebrated of the brothers, was born at Cambridge in 1583. Where and under whom he studied is not known, but in his twenty-first year he was sufficiently advanced and celebrated to receive the important post of organist of the Chapel Royal. His first published composition “Fantasies in three parts, composed for viols,” appeared in 1610. It seems to have been the first piece of music printed in England from engraved plates, or “cut in copper, the like not heretofore extant.” In 1622 he was created doctor of music by the university of Oxford. For this occasion he composed an anthem for eight parts, 0 clap your Hands, still extant. In the following year he became organist of Westminster Abbey. Orlando Gibbons died before the beginning of the civil war, or it may be supposed that, like his eldest brother, he would have been a staunch royalist. In a different sense, however, he died in the cause of his master; for having been summoned to Canterbury to produce a composition written in celebration of Charles’s marriage, he there fell a victim to small-pox on June 5, 1625. Of his life very little is known, but that little is well summed up in the article contributed by Mr W. H. Husk to Dr Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, where a complete list of his compositions is also given. His portrait may be found in Hawkins’s well-known History. The works of Gibbons may be divided into secular and sacred compositions, the latter being by far the most important portion. His vocal pieces, madrigals, motets, canons, songs, &c., are admirable specimens of part-writing, and prove him to have been a perfect master of polyphonous treatment. Many of them are for five voices, a very common number in those days; but pieces for four and for six voices also are by no means rare. To the first-named class belong a Te Deum in D minor, two sets of Preces and other compositions for church service, also most of the madrigals. We have also some specimens of his instrumental music, such as the six pieces for the virginals published in Parthenia, a collection of instrumental music produced by Gibbons in conjunction with Dr Bull and Byrd.
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