Painted Hall - Sir James Thornhill's Masterpiece at Greenwich (Lucas Anya)(Pevná vazba)

Published to mark the reopening of the spectacular baroque interior of the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich after a landmark conservation project, The Painted Hall is a wonderful celebration of what has been called ‘the Sistine Chapel of the UK’. The ceiling and wall decorations of the Painted Hall were conceived and executed by the artist Sir James Thornhill between 1707 and 1726 – years that witnessed the Act of Union during the reign of Queen Anne and Great Britain’s rise to become a dominant Protestant power in a predominantly Catholic Europe. The accessions to the throne of William III and Mary II in 1688 and George I in 1714 form the central narrative of a scheme that also honours Britain’s maritime successes and mercantile prosperity. The artist drew on a cast of around 200 figures – a mixture of historical, contemporary, allegorical and mythological characters – to tell a story of political change, scientific and cultural achievements, naval endeavours, and commercial enterprise against a series of magnificent backdrops. In the first part of the book, Dr Anya Lucas describes the history and architecture of the building and the background to Thornhill’s commission. The grandeur of his composition, which covers 40,000 square feet, reflects the importance of the space that the paintings adorn: the hall of the new Royal Hospital for Seamen. The Hospital was established in 1694 at Queen Mary’s instigation for men invalided out of the
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