An oak chimneypiece in the former Director’s Office of the National Library of Ireland, Dublin. It is one of ten designed for the building by architect Thomas Manly Deane in 1890 and carved by Carlo Cambi in Siena, much to the chagrin of Irish craftsmen who believed they should have been given this and similar commissions for the National Museum and National Gallery. The chimneypiece, and its companion on the opposite side of the library’s entrance hall in what was originally the Trustees’ Room, are judged to be the library’s two best, both featuring herms with flowing locks supporting an architrave scattered with birds and gryphons, the whole centred on a smiling putto.
Craftsmen may have been miffed, but not the beholders.
Okay, okay Velcrox… what in the world is a “herm”?? Googled it to no avail. On Nantucket Island with no Webster’s handy! Really interesting post. Xxs, Susan
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Actually I just found it…in online Webster dictionary. Hermes-like though I thought Hermes was a man, consequently with no breasts; your herms are very well endowed though probably not “hermaphradic”.
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