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Реферат: Музеи (Иностранные языки)
Introduction
Art plays an important role in the life of a man and sometimes it is
next to impossible to live without it. It is natural that the first thing
that comes to my mind at the mention of the word ‘art’ is museums.
A museum is a stock of the world’s masterpieces, it is the place, where
you can enrich knowledge, you can look at the achievements of mankind, you
can satisfy your aesthetic taste. Museums give the possibility to be always
in touch with the past and every time discover something new for yourself.
Besides, museums play an important role in the life of any nation. A museum
is just the right place to find out lots of interesting things about
history, traditions and habits of different peoples. One may find in
museums papers, photos, books, scripts, works of art, personal things of
famous people etc. All this helps us to better understand historical
events, scientific discoveries, character and deeds of well-known
personalities.
I think museums somehow effect the formation of personality, his
outlook. Every educated person is sure to understand the great significance
of museums in our life, especially nowadays, when after the humdrum of
everyday life you may go to your favourite museum, relax there with your
body and soul and acquire inner harmony and balance.
I am a regular museum-goer. In fact I visited no less than 20 museums.
Among them: the Louver, the National Gallery, the Shakespeare House in
Stratford-on Avon, the Oxford story exhibition, Museum of Reading, Madam
Tussaud’s Exhibition ,the Tretyakov Gallery and others. We can hardly find
a town in our country without its «Fine Arts» Museum. I’ve been in
Voronezh, Kislovodsk, Essentuky and some other regional museums.
Now I want to write about the Tretyakov Gallery, Windsor Castle,
Westminster Abbey, Buckinngham Palace and Hermitage, about their history
and their collections.
The Hermitage
The State Hermitage in St. Petersburg ranks among the world’s most
outstanding art museums. It is the largest museum in Russia: nowadays its
vast and varied collections take up four buildings; its rooms if stretched
in one line would measure many miles in total length, while they cover an
area of 94240 square meters. Over 300 rooms are open to the public and
contain a rich selection from the museum’s collections numbering about
2500000 items. The earliest exhibits Date from 500000-300000B.C., the
latest are modern works.
The collections possessed by the museum are distributed among its seven
departments and form over forty permanent exhibitions. A common feature,
characterising these exhibitions is the arrangement of items (all of them
originals) according to countries and schools in a strictly chronological
order, with a view to illustrating almost every stage of human culture and
every great art epoch from the prehistoric times to the 20th century.
Fabulous treasures are gathered in the Museum. It contains a rare
collection of specimens of Soythian culture and art; objects of great
aesthetic and historical value found in the burial mounds of the Altai; a
most complete representation of exhibits characterising Russian culture and
art. The Oriental collections of the Museum, ranking among the richest in
the world, give an idea of the culture and art of the people of the Near
and the Far East; India, China, Byzantium and Iran, are best represented;
remarkable materials illustrative of the culture and art of the peoples
inhabiting the Caucasus and Central Asia, also from part of the collections
of the Department. The Museum numbers among its treasures monuments of
ancient Greece and Rome and those from the Greek settlements on the North
coast of the Black Sea.
World famous is the collection of West-European paintings, covering a
span of about seven hundred years, from the 13th to the 20th century, and
comprising works by Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Titian, El Greco,
Velazquez, Murillo; outstanding paintings by Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Rubens; a
remarkable group of French eighteenth century canvases, and Impressionist
and Post Impressionist paintings. The collection illustrates the art of
Italy, Spain, Holland, Belgium, Germany, France, Britain, Sweden, Denmark,
Finland and some other countries. The West European Department of the
Museum also includes a fine collection of European sculpture, containing
works by Michelangelo, Canova, Falkonet, Houdon, Rodin and many other
eminent masters; a marvellous collection of prints and drawings, numbering
about 600 000 items; arms and armour; one of the world most outstanding
collections of applied art, rich in tapestries, furniture, lace, ivories,
porcelain metalwork, bronzes, silver, jewellery and enamels. An important
part among the museum possessions is taken by the numismatic collection,
which numbers over 1 000 000 items and is regarded as one of the largest in
the world. A permanent exhibition of coins, orders and medals is open on
the 2nd floor, rooms 398-400. There are auxiliary displays of coins forming
part of exhibitions in other departments as well. A temporary exhibition of
West-European medals is on view in the Raphael Loggias (1st floor, room
227).
The seven departments of the museum, i.e. the Department of Russian
Culture, Primitive culture, Culture and Art of the peoples of the Soviet
East, Culture and Art of the Foreign Countries of the East, Culture and Art
of the Antique World, West-European Art, Numismatics, together with the
Education Department, the Conservation Department and the Library determine
the administrative and academic structure of the museum.
Within the past few decades the Hermitage has become one of the
country’s most important centres of art study with a research staff of
about 200 historians carrying out a vast program of research on art
problems, and responsible for the preservation of the museum treasures,
their conservation and restoration, and also for the scientific
popularisation of art. The results of this varied work are published in the
form of books, articles, periodicals, pamphlets, etc.
Since 1949 a post-graduate school has been functioning at the
Hermitage, specialists in art working here at their theses.
An important aspect of the Museum’s research activities is the work of
the annual archaeological expeditions organised by the Museum either
independently or in co-operation with other Soviet scientific
institutions. The most notable among them are: the Kazmir-Blur expedition
making excavations of the city of Taishebaini dating from the 7th century
B.C and situated on the Kazmir-Blur hill near Erevan; the Chersonese and
Nymphaeum expeditions working on the sites of the ancient Greek towns
in the Crimea, the Tadjik, Altai, Pskov and some other expeditions.The
material discovered by them is of exceptional value, for not only does it
throw fresh light on the problems of the history of the art and
culture, but it also serves to enrich the Hermitage collections.
Most helpful in the Museum’s research work is the Hermitage Library
which contains about 400 000 books, pamphlets, periodicals, and is one
of the largest among the art libraries in Russia. It was started in the
18th century and contains works on all branches of fine and applied arts.
In addition to the Central Library each Department has at its disposal
a subsidiary library of special literature. Of these, the library of the
Hermitage exchanges books with a number of Russian and foreign
museums. It is open to every student of art.
All these are but a few aspects of the varied work carried out by the
Museum and constantly achieving still greater scope and a few forms,
meeting the growing cultural demands of the Russian people.
THE MAKING OF THE COLLECTION
Although visited now by thousands of people the Museum
traditionally retains the old name of the Hermitage attached to it in the
1760’s and meaning «a hermit’s dwelling», or «a solitary place». The name
is due to the fact that the Hermitage was founded as a palace museum
accessible only to the nearest of the near to the court.
A number of objects of which but a small part was later incorporated in the
museum’s collections were acquired in different countries by Peter I. These
were antique statues Marine landscapes, land a collection of Siberian
ancient gold buckles. However, the foundation of the Hermitage is usually
dated to the year 1764 when a collection of 225 pictures was bought by
Catherine II from the Prussian merchant Gotzkowsky.
A feature characteristic of the 18th century accusations was the purchase
of large groups of paintings, sometimes of complete galleries, bought
en blok at the sales in Western Europe.Count Bruhl’s collection
acquired in Dresden in 1769, the Gallery of Crozat, bought in Paris in
1772 and the gallery of Lord Walpole acquired in London in 1779 were
the most prominent among the acquisitions made in the 18th century.
Together with numerous purchases of individual pictures, they supplied
the museum with most outstanding canvases of the European school
,including those by Rembraandt,Rubens,Van Dyck and other eminent
artists, and made the Hermitage rank among the finest art galleries of
Europe. Works , commissioned by the Russian court from European painters
also enriched the Picture gallery.By 1785 the Museum numbered 2658
paintings. Prints and drawings, cameos, coins and medals were likewise
represented at the Hermitage.
The acquisition of complete collections and of individual works of
art was continued in the 19th century but on a more modest scale than
during the previous period. Among the most notable acquisitions of the
19th century were: Mathew Malmaison Gallery of the Empress Josephine
bought in 1814; the collection of the English banker Coesvelt consisting
mainly of Spanish paintings, purchased in Amsterdam the same year; as well
as the paintings from the Barrbarigo Palace inVenice which gave the Museum
its best Titians.
As to the individual works of art, the acquisition in 1865 of
Leonardo da Vince’s «Madonna Litta»fromthe Duce of Litta collection and
the purchase of Raphael’s «Virgin and Child» from the Conestebite family
in 1870, were important landmarks in the growth of the treasures of the
Hermitage.
In 1885 the Hermitage received an important collection of objects
of applied art of the 12th – 26th centuries, gathered by Basilevsky; ,
together with the Armoury transferred from Tsarskoe Selo, notably
enriched the Museum with a new type of material
The first decade of the 20th century witnessed the acquisition
of a magnificent collection including 730 canvases by the Dutch and
Flemish artists, which had been in the possession of the eminent Russian
scientist Semenov-Tienshansky. Another most important acquisition was
Leonardo da Vinci’s «Madonna and Child» purchased in 1914 from the family
of the architect L.Benois.
The Great October Revolution created highly favourable conditions
for the further growth of the Museum collections and their systematic
study. Since October 1917, due to the care taken by Soviet Government for
the preservation of art treasures, the Museum was enriched with a great
number of first-class works of art. Among these were the best pictures
chosen by the Hermitage the nationalised private collections such as
those formerly owned by the Yussupovs, the Shuvalovs, the Stroganovs;
paintings transferred from the imperial palaces; art treasures, acquired
by exchange from other museums within the country.
The policy of planned distribution of art treasures among the
museums carried out by the state, enabled the Hermitage not only to fill
up many gaps and deficiencies by adding to its picture gallery Italian
paintings of the 13th-15th centuries, works of the Netherlandish school,
and of the French school of the 19th and 20th centuries but to form a
museum free from private taste , and made it possible to arrange the
collections systematically. The accumulation of materials which had not
been represented in the museum in the pre-Revolutionary period ,led to the
formation of new departments: the department of the history of culture and
art of the primitive society, of the culture and art of the peoples of the
East, and that of the history of Russian culture.
He immense growth of the collections made it necessary to extend
the exhibition
space This is why the building of the Winter Palace was placed at the
disposal of the Hermitage, the name «The State Hermitage» being now
applied to the whole great museum thus formed.
BRITISH SCHOOL
The Hermitage is one of the very few on the Continent which contains
a special section for English pictures.
Portraiture, landscape painting and satire art in which England
excelled , are represented by a number of first-class paintings and
prints executed by the most outstanding artists of British School, mainly
of the 18th century. A number of 17th-19th century works are on show too.
There are also some notable specimens of applied art, among which is a fine
group of objects in silver and Wedgwood potteryware . English paintings of
the 17th century are extremely rare outside England.The Hermitage
possesses several works of this period. These are: the Portrait of Oliver
Cromwell by Robert Walker, two portraits by Peter Lely, of which the
«Portrait of a Woman» reveals the artist’s sense of colour to great
advantage; also the «Portrait of Grinling Gibbons» by Godfrey Kneller, to
name only the most outstanding canvases.
The collection has no paintings by William Hogarth, but some of his
prints selected from a large and representative collection possessed by
the Museum are usually on show.
Joshua Reynolds is represented by four canvases all painted in
the 1780-s.
An interesting example of his late work is the «Infant Hercules strangling
the Serpents», which is an allegory of the youthful Russia vanquishing her
enemies. The picture was commissioned from Reynolds by Catherine II, and
was brought to Russia
in 1789. In 1891 two other canvases were sent by Reynolds to Russia. One
was the «Continence of Scepic Africanus» , which , as well as the
«Infant Hercules», reveals Reynolds’s conception of the grand style in
art. The other was «Venus and Cupid»; presumably representing Lady
Hamilton .This is one of the versions of the piсture entitled «The Snake
in the Grass», owned by the National Gallery, London
Reynolds’s «Girl at a window» is a copy with slight modifications,
from Rembrandt’s canvas bearing the same title, and owned by the Dulwich
Gallery. It may be regarded as an example of Reynolds’s study of the «old
masters’» works.
A fair idea of the British artists’ achievements in the field of
portrait painting can be gained from the canvases by George Romney Thomas
Gainsborough, John Opie, Henry Rdeburn, John Hoppner and John Russell, all
marked by a vividness of expression and brilliance of execution typical of
the British School of portrait painting in the days when it had achieved a
national tradition. Highly important is Gainsborough’s superb «Portrait of
the Duchess of Beaufort» painted in a loose and most effective manner
characteristic of his art in the late 1770’s. For charm of expression and
brilliance of execution, it ranks among the masterpieces of the Museum.The
«Tron Forge» by Joseph Wright of Derby is an interesting example of a new
subject in English18th century art: the theme of labour and industry, which
merged in the days of the Industrial Revolution.
The few paintings of importance belonging to the British school of the
19th century include a landscape ascribed to John Constable; the «Boats at
a shore» by Richard Parkers Bonington; the «Portrait of an old woman» by
David Wilki, three portraits by Thomas Lawrence and portraits by George
Daive, of which the unfinished «Portrait of the Admiral Shishkov» is the
most impressive.
The collection was largely formed at the beginning of the 20th
century, a great part of it deriving from the Khitrovo collection
bequeathed to the Museum in 1916.
THE TRETYAKOV GALLERY
The Tretyakov Gallery , founded by Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov (1832-
1989), a Moscow merchant and art patron, is a national treasury of Russian
pre-revolutionary and Russian art.
The Gallery’s centenary was widely celebrated throughout Russia in
May 1956. Tretyakov spent his life collecting the works of Russian painters
which reflected the spirit and ideas of all progressive intellectual of
his day. He began his collection in 1856 with the purchase of
«Temptation» (1856) by N.Shilder and «Finnish Smugglers» (1853) by
V.Khudyakov. These paintings are on permanent exhibition. In order that
his collection better reflect the centuries-old traditions of Russian art
he acquired works of various epochs and also began a collection of antique
icons. Tretyakov was one of the few people of his time who realised the
great intrinsic value of ancient Russian art. He was on friendly terms
with many progressive , democratic Russian painters, frequenting their
studious, taking an active interest in their work, often suggesting themes
for new paintings, and helping them financially. His collection grew
rapidly; by 1872 a special building was erected to house it.
Tretyakov was aware of the national importance of his vast collection
of Russian art and presented it to the city of Moscow in 1892, thus
establishing the first museum in Russia. An excerpt from his will reads:
« Desirous of facilitating the establishment in my beloved city of useful
institutions aimed at promoting the development of art in Russia, and in
order to hand down to succeeding generations the collection I have amassed
I hereby bequeath my entire picture gallery and the works of art contained
therein, as well as my half of the house, to the Moscow City Duma. By
special decree of the Soviet Government, Issued on June 3 1918 and signed
by V.I. Lenin, the Gallery was designated one of the most important
educational establishments of the country. It was also decreed that the
name of its founder be retained in honour of Tretyakov’s great services to
Russian culture.
The Gallerie’s collection has grown considerably in the years since
the Revolution. In 1893 it consisted of 1805 works of art, but by 1956 the
number had increased to 35276.The early Russian Art department and the
collections of sculpture and drawings were considerably enlarged, and an
entirely new department- Soviet Art- was created. By a Government decision
of 1956, a new house is to be built for the Gallery within the next few
years.
At present, the more interesting and distinctive works, tracing the
development of Russian art through nearly ten centuries, are exhibit in
the Gallery’s 54 halls.
BUCKINGHAM PALACE
Buckingham palace is the official London residence of Her Majesty The
Queen and as such is one of the best known and most potent symbols of the
British monarchy. Yet it has been a royal residence for only just over two
hundred and thirty years and a palace for much less; and its name, known
the world over, is owed not to a monarch but to an English Duke.
Buckingham House was built for John, first Duke of Buckingham, between
1702 and 1705. It was sold to the Crown in 1762. Surprisingly, since it was
a large house in a commanding position, it was never intended to be the
principal residence of the monarch.
Although King George III modernised and enlarged the house considerably
in the 1760s and 17770s, the transformations that give the building its
present palatial character were carried out for King George IY by Nash in
the 1820s, by Edward Blore for King William IY and Queen Victoria in
the 1830s and 40s, and by James Pennethoooorne in the 1850s.
In the reign of King Edward YII, much of the present white and gold
decoration was substituted for the richly coloured 19th century schemes of
Nash and Blore; and in the 1920s, Queen Mary used the firm of White Allom
to redecorate a number of rooms.
The rooms open to visitors are used principally for official
entertainment .These include Receptions and State Banquets, and it is on
such occasions, when the rooms are filled with flowers and thronged with
formally dressed guests and liveried servants, that the Palace is seen
at its most splendid and imposing. But of course the Palace is also far
more than just the London home of the Royal Family and a place of lavish
entertainment. It has become the administrative centre of the monarchy
where, among a multitude of engagements, Her Majesty receives foreign
Heads of State, Commonwealth leaders and representatives of the Diplomatic
Corps and conducts Investitures, and where the majority of the Royal
Houshold, consisting of six main Departments and a staff of about three
hundred people, have their offices.
THE QUEEN’S HOUSE
The Duke of Buckingham’s house, which George III purchased in 1762,
was designed by the architect William Winde, possibly with the advice of
John Talman, in 1702.
The new house, a handsome brick and stone mansion crowned with
statuary and joined by colonnades to outlying wings, looked eastward
down the Mall and westwards over the splendid canal and formal gardens,
laid out for the Duke by Henry Wise partly on the site of the royal
Mulberry Garden. This garden had been part of an ill-fated attempt by
James I to introduce a silk industry to rival that of France by planting
thousands of mulberry trees.
The building and its setting were well suited to the dignity of the
Duke, a former Lord Chamberlain and suitor of Princess Anne, and of his
wife, an illegitimate daughter of James II, whose eccentricity and
delusions of grandeur earned her the nickname of «Princess Buckingham».
The principal rooms, then as now, were on the first floor. They were
reached by a magnificent staircase with ironwork by Jean Tijou and
walls painted by Louis Laguerre with the story of Dido and Aeneas.
Under the architectural direction of Sir William Chambers and over
the following twelve years The Queen’s House was gradually modernised
and enlarged to provide accommodation for the King and Queen and their
children, as well as their growing collection of books, pictures and
works of art.
QUEEN VICTORIA’S PALACE
At the age of eighteen, Queen Victoria became the first Sovereign to
live at Buckingham Palace.
John Nash had rightly predicted that the Palace would prove too
small, but this was a fault capable of remedy. The absence of a chapel was
made good after the Queen’s marriage to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and
Gotha, when the south conservatory was converted in 1843.
In 1847 the architect Edward Blore added the new East Front. Along the
first floor Blore placed the Principal Corridor, a gallery 240 feet long
overlooking the Quadrangle and divided into three sections by folding
doors of mirror glass. It links the Royal Corridor on the south, and opens
into suites of semi-state rooms facing the Mall and St James’s Park. Blore
introduced into the East Front some of the finest fittings from George
IY’s Royal Pavilion at Brighton, which Queen Victoria ceased to use after
the purchase of Osborn House in 1845.
The new building rendered the Marble Arch both functionally and
ornamentally dispensable, and it was removed in 1850 to its present site
at the north-east corner of Hyde Park.
THE STATE ROOMS
Most of the principal State Rooms are located on to first floor of
Bughingham Palace. They are approached from Nash’s Grand Hall which in
its unusual low proportions echoes the original hall of Bughingham House.
The coupled columns which surround the Hall are each composed of a single
block of veined Carrara marble enriched with Corinthian capitals of gilt
bronze made by Samuel Parker.
The Grand Staircase, built by Nash on site of the original stairs,
divides theatrically into three flights at the first landing, two flights
curving upwards to the Guard room. The gilded balustrade was made by
Samuel Parker in 1828-30. The walls are set with full-length portraits
which include George III and Queen Charlotte by Beechey,William IY by
Lawrence and Queen Adelaide by Archer Shee. The sculptured wall panels were
designed by Thomas Stothard and the etched glass dome was made by
Wainwright and Brothers.
GALLERY
The picture Gallery, the largest room in the Palace, was formed by
Nash in the area of Queen Charlotte’s old apartments. Nash’s ceiling,
modified by Blore in the 1830s, was altered by Sir Aston Webb in 1914.
As there are many loans to exhibitions, the arrangement is subject to
periodic change. However the Gallery normally contains works by Van Dyck,
Rubens, Cuyp and Rembrandt among others. The chimneypieces are carved with
heads of artists and the marble group at the end, by Chantrey, represents
Mrs Jordan, mistress of William.
From the Suilk Tapestry Room the route leads via the East Gallery,
Cross and West Galleries to the State Dining Room. This room is used on
formal occasions and is hung with portraits of GeorgeIY, his parents,
grandparents and great-grandparents.
THE PALACE AT WORK
BUCKINNGHAM Palace is certainly one of the most famous buildings in
the world, known to millions as Queen’s home. Yet it is very much a
working building and centre of the large office complex that is required
for the administration of the modern monarchy.
Although foreign ambassadors are officially accredited to the Court of
St James’s
and some ceremonies, such as the Proclamation of a new Sovereign, still
take place at St James’s Palace, all official business now effectively
takes place at Buckingham Palace.
In some ways the Palace resembles a small town. For the 300 people who
work there, there is a Post office and a police station, staff canteens
and dinning rooms. There is a special three-man security team equipped with
a fluoroscope, which examines every piece of mail that arrives at the
Palace.
There is also a soldier who is responsible for making sure the Royal
Standard is flying whenever The Queen is in residence, and to make sure it
is taken down when she leaves. It is his job to watch for the moment when
the Royal limousine turns into the Palace gates - at the very second The
Queen enters her Palace, the Royal Standard is hoisted.
Buckingham Palace is not only the name of the Royal Family but also the
workplace of an army of secretaries, clerks and typists, telephonists,
carpenters and plumbers etc.
The business of monarchy never stops and the light is often shining
from the window of the Queen’s study late at night as she works on the
famous «boxes», the red and blue leather cases in which are delivered the
State papers, official letters and reports which follow her whenever she
is in the world.
There can hardly be a single one of 600 or so rooms in the Palace that
is not in more or less constant use.
The senior member of the Royal Household is the Lord Chamberlain. In
addition to the role of overseeing all the departments of the Household, he
has a wide variety of responsibilities, including all ceremonial duties
relating to the Sovereign, apart from the wedding, coronation and funeral
of the monarch. .These remain the responsibility of the Earl Marshal, the
Duke of Norfolk. The Lord Chamberlain’s Office has the greatest variety of
responsibilities. It looks after all incoming visits by overseas Heads of
State and the administration of the Chapels Royal. It also supervises the
appointment of Pages of Honour , the Sergeants of Arms, the Marshal of the
Diplomatic Corps, the Master of the Queen’s Music, and the Keeper of the
Queen’s Swans.
The director of the Royal Collection is responsible for one of the
finest collections of works of art in the world. The Royal Collection is a
vast assemblage of works of art of all kinds, comprising some 10,000
pictures, enamels and miniatures, 20,000 drawings, 10,000 watercolours
and 500,000 prints, and many thousands of pieces of furniture, sculpture,
glass, porcelain, arms and armour, textiles, silver, gold and jewellery.
It has largely been formed by succeeding sovereigns, consorts and
other members of the Royal Family in the three hundred years since the
Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660.
The Collection is presently housed in twelve principal locations open
to the public, which include Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace, Hampton
Court Palace, Windsor Castle, The Palace of Holyroodhouse and Osborne
House.
In addition a substantial number of objects are on indefinite loan to
the British Museum, National Gallery, Victoria and Albert Museum and
Museum of London.
Additional access to the Royal Collection is provided by means of
exhibitions, notably at The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, opened in
1962.
WINDSOR CASTLE
Windsor Castle is the oldest royal residence to have remained in
continuous use by the monarchs of Britain and is in many ways an
architectural epitome of the history of the nation. Its skyline of
battlements, turrets and the great Round Tower is instantly recognised
throughout the world. The Castle covers an area of nearly thirteen acres
and contains, as well as a royal palace, a magnificent collegiate church
and the homes or workplaces of a large number of people ,including the
Constable and Governor of the Castle, the Military Knights of Windsor and
their families, etc.
The Castle was founded by William the Conqueror c. 1080 and was
conceived as one of a chain of fortifications built as a defensive ring
round London.
Norman castles were built to a standard plan with an artificial
earthen mound supporting a tower or keep, the entrance to which was
protected by an outer fenced courtyard or baily. Windsor is the most
notable example of a particularly distinctive version of this basic plan
developed for use on a ridge site. It comprises a central mote with a
large bialy to either side of it rather than just on one side as was more
than usual.
As first built, the Castle was entirely defensive, constructed of
earth and timber, but easy access from London and the proximity of the
Castle to the old royal hunting forest to the south soon recommended it
as a royal residence. Henry I is known to have had domestic quarterswithin
the castle as early as 1110 and Henry converted the Castle into a palace.
He built two separate sets of royal apartments within the fortified
enclosure: a public or official state residence in the Lower Ward, with a
hall where he could entertain his court and the barons on great
occasions, and a smaller private residence on the North side of the Upper
Ward for the exclusive occupation of himself and his family.
Henry II was a great builder at all his residences. He began to
replace the old timber outer walls of the Upper Ward with a hard heath
stone found ten miles south of Windsor. The basic curtain wall round the
Upper Ward, much modified by later alterations and improvements, dates from
Henry II’s time, as does the old part of the stone keep, known as the Round
Tower , on top of William’s the Conqueror’s mote. The reconstruction of the
curtain wall round the Lower Ward was completed over the next sixty years.
The well-preserved section visible from the High street with its three half-
round towers was built by Henry III in the 1220s.He took a keen personal
interest in all his projects and carried out extensive works at Windsor.
In his time it became one of the three principal royal palaces
alongside those at Westminster and Winchester. He rebuilt Henry II’s
apartments in the Lower Ward and added there a large new chapel, all
forming a coherently planned layout round a courtyard with a
cloister; parts survive embedded in later structures in the Lower Ward. He
also further improved the royal private apartments in the Upper Ward.
The outstanding medieval expansion of Windsor, however, took place
in the reign of Edward III. His huge building project at the Castle was
probably the most ambitious single architectural scheme in the whole
history of the English royal residences, and cost the astonishing
total of 50,772 pounds. Rebuilt with the proceeds of the King’s military
triumphs, the Castle was converted by Edward III into a fortified
palace redolent of chivalry The stone base was and military glory, as the
centre of his court and the seat of his newly founded Order of the Garter
.Even today, the massive Gothic architecture of Windsor reflects Edward
III’s medieval ideal of Christian, chivalric monarchy as clearly as Louis
XIY’s Versailles represents baroque absolutism.
The Lower Ward was reconstructed, the old royal lodgings being
transformed into the College of St George, and a new cloister, which still
survives, built with traceeried windows. In addition there were to be
twenty-six Poor Knights. Henry III’s chapel was made over for their use,
rebuilt and renamed St George’s Chapel.
The reconstruction of the Upper Ward was begun in 1357 with new royal
lodgings built of stone under the direction of William of Wykeham, Bishop
of Winchester. An inner gatehouse with cylindrical towers was built at the
entrance to the Upper Ward.Stone-vaulted undercrofts supported extensive
royal apartments on the first floor with separate sets of rooms for the
King and the Queen ( as was the tradition of the English royal
palaces),arranged round two inner courtyards later known as Brick Court
and Horn Court .Along the south side, facing the quadrangle, were the Great
Hall and Royal Chapel end to end. Edward IY built the present larger St
George’s Chapel to the west of Henry III’s.Henry YII remodelled the old
chapel ( now the Albert Memorial Chapel) at its east end; he also added
a new range to the west of the State Apartments which Elizabeth I extended
by a long gallery .
During the English Civil War in the mid-seventeenth century, the
Castle was seized by Parliamentary forces who ill-treated the buildings
and used part of them as a prison for Royalists.
At the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 Charles II was determined to
reinstate the old glories of the Crown after the interval of the
Commonwealth. Windsor was his favourite non-metropolitan palace and it
was the only one which could be effectively garrisoned.
The architect Hugh May was appointed in 1673 to supervise the work and
over the next eleven years the Upper Ward and State Apartments were
reconstructed. The result was both ingenious and magnificent, making the
Upper Ward the most unusual palace in baroque Europe.
The interior was a rich contrast to the austerity of the exterior and
formed the first and grandest sequence of baroque State Apartments in
England.The ceilings were painted by Antonio Verrio, an Italian artist
brought from Paris by the Duke of Montagu, Charles II’s ambassador to
Louis XIY. The walls were wainscoted in oak and festooned with brilliant
virtuoso carvings by Grinling Gibbons and Henry Phillips of fruit,
flowers, fish and birds The climax of Charles II’s reconstruction was
St George’s Hall and the King’s Chapel with murals by Verrio. In the
former there were historical scenes of Edward III and the Black Prince, as
well as Charles II in Grater robes enthroned in glory, and in the latter
Christ’s miracles and the Last Supper. All were destroyed by Wyatville inn
1829. The source of inspiration for the new rooms at Windsor was the
France of Louis XIY, but the use of wood rather than coloured marbles
gave Windsor a different character and established a fashion which was
copied in many English country houses.
William III and the early Hanoverian kings spent more time at Hampton
Court than at Windsor. Windsor, however, came back into its own in the
reign of George III, who disliked Hampton Court, which had unhappy memories
for him
From 1777 George III reconstructed the Queen’s Lodge to the south of
the Castle. He also restored St George’s Chapel in the 1780s.At the same
time a new state entrance and Gothic staircase were constructed for the
State Apartments.
As well as his work in the Castle, George III modernised Frogmore in
the Home Park as a retreat for his wife, Queen Charlotte, and reclaimed
some of the Great Park for agriculture. The King designed a special
Windsor uniform of blue cloth with red and gold facings, a version of
which is still worn on occasions today. The King loved the Castle and
its romantic associations. In 1805 he revived the formal ceremonies of
installation of Knights of the Garter at Windsor.
When George IY inherited the throne, he shared his father’s
romantic architectural enthusiasm for Windsor and determined to continue
the Gothic transformation and the creation of convenient, comfortable and
splendid new royal apartments.
In many ways Windsor Castle enjoyed its apogee in the reign of
Queen Victoria.. She spent the largest portion of every year at Windsor,
and in her reign it enjoyed the position of principal palace of the British
monarchy and the focus of the British Empire as well as nearly the whole
of royal Europe. The Castle was visited by heads of state from all over the
world and was the scene of a series of splendid state visits. On these
occasions the state rooms were used for their original purpose by royal
guests. The visits of King Louis Philippe in 1844 and the Emperor Napoleon
III inn 1855 were especially successful. They were invested at Windsor with
the Order of the Garter in formal ceremonies, as on other occasions were
King Victor Emanuel I of Italy and the Emperor William I of Germany.
For the most of the twentieth century Windsor Castle survived as it was in
the nineteenth century. The Queen and her family spend most of their
private weekends at the Castle.
A distinctive feature of hospitality at Windsor Castle are the
invitations to «dine and sleep» which go back to Queen Victoria’s time
and encompass people prominent in many walks of life including The
Queen’s ministers. On such occasions, The Queen shows her guests a
specially chosen exhibition of treasures from the Royal Collection.
THE GALLERY,THE CHINA MUSEUM
The central vaulted undercroft, originally created by James Wyatt and
extended in the same style by Jeffry Wyatville to serve as the principal
entrance hall to the State Apartments, was cut off when the Grand Staircase
was reoriented in the reign of Queen Victoria. It has recently been
redesigned and now houses a changing exhibition of works of art from the
Royal Collection, which include Old Master drawings from the world-famous
Print Room in the Royal Library.
The carved Ionic capitals of the columns survive from Hugh May’s
alterations for Charles II. In cases round the walls are displayed
magnificent china services from leading English and European porcelain
manufacturers: Serves, Meiden, Copenhagen, Naples, Rockingham and
Worchester. These are still used for royal banquets and other important
occasions.
There are some famous paintings in Windsor Castle: Van Dyke’s «Triple
Portrait of Charles I» painted to send to Bernie in Italy to enable him to
sculpture a bust of the King; Colonel John St.Leger, a friend of the Prince
Regent, by Gainsborough;Vermeer’s portrait of a lady at the virginals; The
five eldest children of Charles I by Van Dyke; John Singleton Copley, the
American artist, painted the three youngest daughters of George III and
Queen Charlotte:Princesses Mary, Sophia and Amelia, none of whom left
legitimate descendants and The Campo SS. Giovanniie Paolo Canaletto etc.
ST GEORGE’S CHAPEL
St George’s Chapel is the spiritual home of the Prodder of the Garter,
Britain’s senior Order of Chivalry, founded by King Edward III in 1348. St
George is the patron saint of the Order.
The architecture of the Chapel ranks among the finest examples of
Perpendicular Gothic, the late medieval style of English architecture.
Unlike most of the other great churches ,St George’s Chapel has its
principal or «show» front on the south , facing the Henry YIII gate and
running almost the length of the Lower Ward.
As Sovereign of the Order of the Garter, The Queen attends a service in
the Chapel in June each year, together with the Knights and Ladies of the
Order. Today thirteen Military Knights of Windsor represent the Knights of
the Garter in ST George’s Chapel at regular services. Ten sovereigns are
buried in the Chapel, as are buried in the Chapel, as are other members
of the royal family, many represented by magnificent tombs.
The Albert Memorial Chapel
The richly decorated interior is a Victorian masterpiece, created by
Sir George Gilbert Scott for Queen Victoria in 1863-73 to commemorate her
husband Albert.
The vaulted ceiling is decorated in gold mosaic by Antonio Salviati.
The figures in the false west window represent sovereigns, clerics and
others associated with St George’s Chapel. The inlaid marble panels around
the lower walls depict scenes from Scripture.
This was the site of one of the Castle’s earliest chapels, built in
1240 by King Henry III and adapted by King Edward III in the 1350s as
the first chapel of the College of St George and the Order of the
Garter. When the existing St George’s Chapel was built in 11475-15528, this
small chapel fell into disuse. Subsequent plans to turn it into a royal
mausoleum came to nothing.
In 1863 Queen Victoria ordered its complete restoration and
redecoration as a temporary resting place for Prince Albert.
The Chapel is now dominated by Alfred Gilbert’s tomb of the Duke of
Clarence and Avandale who died in 1892.
The Great Park
The Great Park of Windsor, covering about 4,800 acres, has evolved out
of the Saxon and medieval hunting forest. It is connected to the Castle by
an avenue of nearly 3 miles, known as the Long Walk, planted by King
Charles II in 1685 and replanted in 1945. The Valley Gardens are open
all year round
WESTMINSTER ABBEY
Westminster Abbey is one of the most famous, historic and widely
visited churches not only in Britain but in the whole Christian world.
There are other reasons for its fame apart from its beauty and its vital
role as a centre of the Christian faith in one of the world’s most
important capital cities. These include the facts that since 1066
every sovereign apart from Edward Y and Edward YIII has been crowned here
and that for many centuries it was also the burial place of kings, queens
and princes.
The royal connections began even earlier than the present Abbey, for
it was Edward the Confessor, sometimes called the last of the English
kings(1042-66) and canonised in 1163, who established an earlier church on
this site. His great Norman Abbey was built close to his palace on
Thorney Island. It was completed in 1065 and stood surrounded by the many
ancillary buildings needed by the community of Benedictine monks who
passed their lives of prayer here. Edward’s death near the time of his
Abbey’s consecration made it natural for his burial place to be by the
High Altar.
Only 200 years later, the Norman east end of the Abbey was demolished
and rebuilt on the orders of Henry III, who had a great devotion to Edward
the Confessor and wanted to honour him. The central focus of the new Abbey
was a magnificent shrine to house St Edward’s body ; the remains of this
shrine, dismantled at the Reformation but later reerected in rather a
clumsy and piecemeal way, can still be seen behind the High Altar today.
The new Abbey remained incomplete until 1376, when the rebuilding of
the Nave began; it was not finished until 150 years later, but the master
masons carried on a similar thirteenth-century Gothic, French-influenced
design, as that of Henry III’s initial work, over that period, giving the
whole a beautiful harmony of style.
In the early sixteenth century the Lady Chapel was rebuilt as the
magnificent Henry YII Chapel; with its superb fan-vaulting it is one of
Westminster’s great treasures.
In the mid-eighteenth century the last malor additions - the two
western towers designed by Hawksmoor - were made to the main fabric of the
Abbey.
THE NAVE was begun by Abbot Litlington who financed the work with
money left by Cardinal Simon Langham, his predecessor, for the use of the
monastery. The master mason in charge of the work was almost certainly the
great Henry Yevele. His design depended on the extra strength given to the
structure by massive flying buttresses. These enabled the roof to be
raised to a height of 102 feet. The stonework of the vaulting has been
cleaned and the bosses gilded in recent years.
At the west end of the Nave is a magnificent window filled with
stained glass of 1735, probably designed by Sir James Thornhill (1676-
1734).(He also painted the interior of the dome in St Paul’s Cathedral} The
design shows Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, with fourteen prophets, and
underneath are the arms of King Sebert, Elizabeth I, George II, Dean
Wilcocks and the Collegiate Church of St Peter in Westminster.
Also at the west end of the Nave is the grave of the Unknown Warrior.
The idea for such a memorial is said to have come from a British
chaplain who noticed, in a back garden at Armeentieeres, a grave with the
simple inscription: «An unknown British soldier». In 1920 the body of
another unknown soldier was brought back from the battlefields to be
reburied in the Abbey on 11 November. George Y and Queen Mary and many
other members of the royal family attended the service, 100 holders of the
Victoria Cross lining the Nave as a Guard of Honour. On a nearby pillar
hangs the Congressional Medal, the highest award which can be conferred by
the United St ates.
From the Nave roof hang chandeliers, both giving light and in
daylight reflecting it from their hundreds of pedant crystals. They were
a gift to mark the 900th anniversary of the Abbey and are of Waterford
glass.
At the east end of the Nave is the screen separating it from the
Choir. Designed by the then Surveyor, Edward Blore, in 1834, it is the
fourth screen to be placed here; the wrought-iron gates, however, remain
from a previous screen. Within recent years the screen has been painted
and glided.
THE CHOIR was originally the part of the Abbey in which the monks
worshipped, but there is now no trace of the pre- Reformation fittings,
for in the late eighteenth century Kneene, the then Surveyor, removed the
thirteenth-century stalls and designed a smaller Choir. This was in turn
destroyed in the mid-nineteenth century by Edward Blore, who created the
present Choir in Victoria Gothic style and removed the partitions which
until then had blocked off the transepts
It is here that the choir of about twenty-two boys and twelve Lay
Vicars sings the daily services. The boys are educated at the Choir School
attached to the Abbey ;mention of such a school is made in the fifteenth
century and it may be even older in origin. For some centuries it was
linked with Westminster School, but became independent in the mid-
nineteenth century.
The Organ was originally built by Shrider in 1730. Successive
rebuildings in 1849,1884,1909,,and 1937 and extensive work in 1983 have
resulted in the present instrument.
THE SANCTUARY is the heart of the Abbey, where the High Altar stands
The altar and the reredos behind it, with a mosaic of the Last Supper, were
designed by Sir Gilbert Scott in 1867. Standing on the altar are two
candlesticks, bought with money bequeathed by a serving-maid, Sarah
Hughes, in the seventeenth century. In front of the altar, but protected by
carpeting, is another of the Abbey’s treasures - a now-very-worn pavement
dating from the thirteenth century. The method of its decoration is known
as Cosmati work, after the Italian family who developed the technique of
inlaying intricate designs made up of small pieces of coloured marble into
a plain marble ground.
THE NORTH TRANSEPT, to the left of the Sanctuary, has a beautiful rose
window designed by Sir James Thornhill, showing eleven Apostles. The
Transept once led to Solomon’s Porch and now leads to the nineteenth-
century North Front.
THE HENRY YII CHAPEL, beyond the apse, was begun in 1503 as a burial
place for Henry YI, on the orders of Henry YII, but it was Henry.YII
himself who was finally buried here, in an elaborate tomb. The master
mason, who designed the chapel was probably Robert Vertue his brother
William constructed the vault at St George’s Chapel, Windsor, in 1505 and
this experience may have helped in the creation of the magnificent vaulting
erected here a few years later.
The chapel has an apse and side aisles which are fan-vaulted, and the
central section is roofed with extraordinarily intricate and finely-
detailed circular vaulting ,embellished with more Tudor badges and with
carved pendants, which is literally breath-taking in the perfection of its
beauty and artistry.
Beneath the windows, once filled with glass painted by Bernard Flower
of which only fragments now remain, are ninety-four of the original 107
statues of saints, placed in richly embellished niches. Beneath these, in
turn, hang the banners of the living Knights Grand Cross of the Order of
the Bath, whose chapel this is. When the Order was founded in 1725, extra
stalls and seats were added to those originally provided. To the stalls
are attached plates recording the names and arms of past Knights of the
Order, while under the seats can be seen finely carved misericords.
The altar, a copy of the sixteenth-century altar incorporates two
of the original pillars and under its canopy hangs a fifteenth-century
Madonna and Child by Vivarini.
In the centre of the apse, behind the altar, stand the tomb of Henry
YII and Elizabeth of York, protected by a bronze screen. The tomb was the
work of Torrigiani and the effigies of the king and queen are finely
executed in gilt bronze.
In later years many more royal burials took place in the chapel. Mary
I, her half-sister Elizabeth I and half-brother Edward YI all lie here The
Latin inscription on thetomb - on which only Elizabeth Ist effigy rests -
reads: «Consorts both in throne and grave, here rest we two sisters,
Elizabeth and Mary, in the hope of one Resurrection».
In the south asle lies Mary Queen of Scots, mother of James Yi and I,
who brought her body from Peterborough and gave her a tomb even more
magnificent than that which he had erected for his cousin Elizabeth.I.
In the same aisle lies Henry YII’s mother, Margaret Beaufort, Countess
of Richmond. Her effigy, a bronze by Torrigiani, shows her in old age.
She was known for her charitable works and for her intellect - she founded
Christ’s and St John’s Colleges at Cambridge - and these activities are
recorded in the inscription composed by Erasmus. Also in this aisle is
the tomb of Margaret, Countess of Lennox.
THE CHAPEL OF ST EDWARD THE CONFESSOR, containing his shrine, lies
east of the Sanctuary at the heart of the Abbey. It is closed off from the
west by a stone screen, probably of fifteenth-century date, carved with
scenes from the life of Edward the Confessor; it is approached from the
east via a bridge from the Henry YII Chapel.
The shrine seen today within the chapel is only a ghost of its former
self. It originally had three parts: a stone base decorated with Cosmati
work, a gold feretory containing the saint’s coffin, a canopy above which
could be raised to reveal the feretory or lowered to protect it. Votive
offerings of gold and jewels were given to enrich the feretory over the
centuries. To this shrine came many pilgrims, and the sick were frequently
left beside it overnight in the hope of a cure. All this ceased at the
Reformation The shrine was dismantled and stored by the monks; the gold
feretory was taken away from them, but they were allowed to rebury the
saint elsewhere in the Abbey.
It was during the reign of Mary I that a partial restoration of the
shrine took place. The stone base was re-assembled, the coffin was placed,
in the absence of a feretory, in the top part of the stone base and the
canopy positioned on top. The Chapel has a Cosmati floor, similar to that
before the High Altar, and a blank space in the design shows where the
shrine once stood; it also indicates that the shrine was originally
raised up on a platform, making the canopy visible beyond the western
screen. The canopy of the shrine has recently been restored, and hopefully
one day the rest of the shrine will also be restored.
And within the chapel can be seen the Coronation Chair and the tombs
of five kings and four queens. At the eastern end is the tomb and Chantey
Chapel of Henry Y, embellished with carvings including scenes of
Henry Y’s coronation. The effigy of the king once had a silver head and
silver regalia, and was covered in silver regalia, and was covered in
silver gilt, but this precious metal was stolen in 1546.
Eleanor of Castle, first wife of Edward I, lies beside the
Chapel. Her body was carried to Westminster from Lincoln, a memorial
cross being erected at each place where the funeral procession rested.
Beside her lies Henry III, responsible for the rebuilding of the
Abbey, in a tomb of Purbeck marble. Next to his tomb is that of Edward I.
Richard II and Anne of Bohemia, Edward III and Philippa of Hainnault, and
Catherine de Valois, Henry Y’s Queen, also lie in this chapel.
THE SOUTH TRANSEPT is lit by a large rose window, with glass dating
from 1902. Beneath it, in the angles above the right and left arches, are
two of the finest carvings in the Abbey, depicting sensing angels. In
addition to the many monuments there are two fine late thirteen-century
wall-paintings, uncovered in 1936, to be seen by the door leading into St
Faith’s Chapel. They depict Christ showing his wounds to Doubting Thomas,
and St Christopher. Beside the south wall rises the dormer staircase, once
used by the monks going from their dormitory to the Choir for their
night offices.
POET’S CORNER
One of the most well-known parts of Westminster Abbey, Poet’s
Corner can be found in the south Transept. It was not originally designated
as the burial place of writers, playwrights and poets; the first poet to be
buried here, Geoffrey Chaucer, was laid to rest in Westminster Abbey
because he had been Clerk of Works to the Palace of Westminster, not
because he had written the Canterbury Tales. However, the inscription over
his grave, placed there by William Caxton - the famous printer whose press
was just beyond the transept wall - mentioned that he was a poet.
Over 150 years later, during the flowering of English
literature in the sixteenth century, a more magnificent tomb was erected
to Chaucer by Nicholas Brigham and in 1599 Edmund Spencer was laid to rest
nearby. These two tombs began a tradition which developed over succeeding
centuries.
Burial or commemoration in the abbey did not always occur at or
soon after the time of death - many of those whose monuments now stand here
had to wait a number of years for recognition; Byron, for example, whose
lifestyle caused a scandal although his poetry was much admired, died in
1824 but was finally given a memorial only in 1969. Even Shakespeare,
buried at Stratford-upon-Avon in 1616, had to wait until 1740 before a
monument, designed by William Kent, appeared in Poet’s Corner. Other poets
and writers, well-known in their own day, have now vanished into obscurity,
with only their monuments to show that they were once famous.
Conversely, many whose writings are still appreciated today have
never been memorialised in Poet’s Corner, although the reason may not
always be clear. Therefore a resting place or memorial in Poet’s Corner
should perhaps not be seen as a final statement of a writer or poet’s
literary worth, but more as a reflection of their public standing at the
time of death - or as an indication of the fickleness of Fate.
Some of the most famous to lie here, in addition to those detailed
on the next two pages include BenJonson, John Dryden, Alfred, Lord
Tennyson, Robert Browning and John Masefield, among the poets, and William
Camden, Dr Samuel Johnson, Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray,
Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Rudyard Kipling and Thomas Hardy among the
writers.
Charles Dickens’s grave attracts particular interest. As a writer
who drew attention to the hardships born by the socially deprived and who
advocated the abolition of the slave trade, he won enduring fame and
gratitude and today, more than 110 years later, a wreath is still laid on
his tomb on the anniversary of his death each year.
Those who have memorials here, although they are buried elsewhere,
include among the poets John Milton, William Wordworth, Thomas Gray, John
Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Robert Burns, William Blake, T.S. Eliot and
among the writers Samuel Butler, Jane Austen, Oliver Goldsmith, Sir Walter
Scott, John Ruskin, Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte and Henry James.
By no means all those buried in the South Transept are poets or
writers, however. Several of Westminster’s former Deans, Archdeacons,
Prebendaries and Canons lie here, as do John Keble, the historian Lord
Macaulay, actors David Garrick, Sir Henry Irving and Mrs Hannah Pritchard,
and, among many others, Thomas Parr, who was said to be 152 years of age
when he died in 1635, having seen ten sovereigns on the throne during his
long life.
CORONATIONS IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY
Coronation have taken place at Westminster since at least 1066, when
William the Conqueror arrived in London after his victory at the battle of
Hastings. Whether or not Harold, his predecessor as monarch, had been
crowned in Edward the Confessor’s Abbey is uncertain - coronations do not
seem to have had a fixed location before 1066, though several monarchs
were crowned at Kingston-upon-Thames, where the King’s Stone still exists
- but William was determined to reinforce his victory, which gave him the
right to rule by conquest, with the sacred hallowing of his sovereignty
which the coronation ceremony would give him. He was crowned in the old
Abbey - then recently completed and housing Edward the Confessor’s body-
on Christmas Day 1066.
The service to-day has four parts: first comes the Introduction
,consisting of: the entry of the Sovereign into | |
