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Museums

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 piñture 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 the Abbey; the formal

recognition of the right of the Sovereign to rule - when the Archbishop

presents the Sovereign to the congregation and asks them if they agree to

the service proceeding, and they respond with an assent; the oath, when

the Sovereign promises to respect and govern in accordance with the lows

of his or her subjects and to uphold the Protestant reformed Church of

England and Scotland; and the presentation of the Bible to the Sovereign,

to be relied on as the source of all wisdom and low. Secondly, the

Sovereign is anointed with holy oil, seated on the Coronation Chair.

Thirdly, the Sovereign is invested with the royal robes and insignia, then

crowned with St Edward’s crown. The final ceremony consists of the

enthronement of the Sovereign on a throne placed on a raised platform,

bringing him or her into full view of the assembled company for the first

time, and there he or she receives the homage of the Lords Spiritual, the

Lords Temporal and the congregation, representing the people of the realm.

The service has changed little - English replaced Latin as the main

language used during the ceremony following Elizabeth Ist coronation, and

from 1689 onwards the coronation ceremony has been set within a service of

Holy Communion although indeed this was a return to ancient custom rather

than the creation of a new precedent).

Coronations have not always followed an identical pattern. Edward

YI, for example, was crowned no less than three times, with three

different crowns placed in turn upon his head; while at Charles I’s

coronation there was a misunderstanding and, instead of the congregational

assent following the Recognition Question, there was dead silence, the

congregation having finally to be told to respond - an ill omen for the

future, as it turned out. Charles II’s coronation, following on the

greyness of the puritan Commonwealth, was a scene of brilliant colour and

great splendour. As the old regalia had been destroyed, replacements were

made for the ceremony, and the clergy were robed in rich red copes - the

same copes are still used in the Abbey

George IY saw his coronation as an opportunity for a great

theatrical spectacle and spent vast sums of money on it. He wore an auburn

wig with ringlets, with a huge plumed hat on top, and designed his own

robes for the procession into the Abbey. After the coronation, because

Queen Caroline had been forcibly excluded from the ceremony, the crowds in

the streets were extremely hostile to him and he had to return to Carlton

House by an alternative route.

In complete contrast, William IY took a lot of persuading before he

would agree to have a coronation at all, and the least possible amount

of money was spent no it - giving it the name the «penny coronation».

Despite his dislike of extravagant show and ceremony, he still brought a

slightly theatrical touch to the scene by living up to his nickname of the

«sailor king» and appearing , when disrobed for the Anointing, in the full-

dress uniform of an Admiral of the Fleet.

The last three coronations have demonstrated continuing respect

for the religious significance of the ceremony and recognition of the

importance of such a public declaration by Sovereign of his or her personal

dedication to the service of the people.

At the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 , for the first time

the service was televised and millions of her subjects could see and hear

the ceremony taking place. It is possible that few watching realised just

how far back into history the roots of that historic ceremony starched, and

how little fundamental change had occurred over the centuries.

LIST OF WORDS

mention óïîìèíàíèå

stock õðàíèëèùå

masterpiece øåäåâð

mankind ÷åëîâå÷åñòâî

satisfy óäîâëåòâîðÿòü

aesthetic ýñòåòè÷åñêèé

to be in touch with áûòü â êîíòàêòå ñ

script ðóêîïèñü

humdrum ñóåòà

acquire îáðåòàòü

LIST OF WORDS

rank among áûòü â ðÿäó ñ

tàke up ïîãëîùàòü

stretch ïðîñòèðàòüñÿ

arrangement ðàñïîëîæåíèå

fabulous ñêàçî÷íûé

span ìèã, ïðîëåò

applied art ïðèêëàäíîå èñêóññòâî

enamel ýìàëü

lace êðóæåâî

ivory ñëîíîâàÿ êîñòü

excavation ðàñêîïêè

scope ðàçìàõ

LIST OF WORDS

accessible äîñòóïíûé

merchant êóïåö

purchase ïîêóïêà

favourable áëàãîïðèÿòíûé

due to the care áëàãîäàðÿ çàáîòå

fill up çàïîëíÿòü

gap ïðîáåë

deficiencies íåäîñòàòîê

accumulation íàêîïëåíèå

at smb’s disposal â ÷üåì-ëèáî ðàñïîðÿæåíèè

LIST OF WORDS

portraiture ïîðòðåòíàÿ

æèâîïèñü

landscape ïåéçàæ

potteryware ôàðôîð

possess îáëàäàòü

vanquish ïðåîäîëåâàòü

presumably âåðîÿòíî

gain ïîëó÷àòü

vividness î÷åâèäíîñòü

merge ãðàíè÷èòü

ascribe ïðèïèñûâàòü

WORD OF LIST

reflect îòðàæàòü

spirit äóõ

permanent ïîñòîÿííûé

rapidly áûñòðî

intrinsic ïðèñóùèé

amass ñîáèðàòü

hereby ïðè ñåì

distinctive î÷åâèäíûé

LIST OF WORDS

intend íàìåðåâàòüñÿ

palatial äâîðöîâûé

carry out îñóùåñòâëÿòü

substitute çàìåíÿòü

scheme ñõåìà

throng òðîí

lavish ùåäðûé

wing êðûëî

lay out ðàñïîëàãàòü

ill-fated íåñ÷àñòëèâûé

attempt ïîïûòêà

mulberry tree øåëêîâèöà

dignity äîñòîèíñòâî

suitor ïîêëîííèê

eccentrisity ýêñöåíòðè÷íîñòü

remedy ëåêàðñòâî

LIST OF WORDS

chain of fortification öåïü óêðåïëåíèé

access äîñòóï

proximity áëèçîñòü

timber ñòðîåâîé ëåñ

alteration ïåðåìåíà,

èçìåíåíèå

improvement óëó÷øåíèå

reddent of chivalry íîñèòåëü ðûöàðñòâà

non-metropolitan íåñòîëè÷íûé

austerity ñòðîãîñòü

sequence ïîñëåäîâàòåëüíîñòü

wainscot îáøèâêà

inspiration âäîõíîâåíèå

marble ìðàìîð

association àññîöèàöèÿ

inherit íàñëåäîâàòü

apogee àïîãåé

LIST OF WORDS

reorient ïåðåîðèåíòèðîâàòü

legitimate çàêîííûé

descendant ïîòîìîê

spiritual äóõîâíûé

inlaid èíêðóñòèðîâàííûé

depict îïèñûâàòü,

îòðàæàòü

disuse íåóïîòðåáëåíèå

subsequent ïîñëåäîâàòåëüíûé

LIST OF WORDS

monk ìîíàõ

consecration ïîñâÿùåíèå

burial ïîãðåáåíèå

demolish ðàçðóøàòü

shrine õðàì

reerect ïåðåñòðîèòü

clumsy íåóêëþæèé

fan-vaulting âååðíûé ñâîä

predecessor ïðåäøåñòâåííèê

buttress îïîðà

underneath ïîä

grave ìîãèëà

chaplain êàïåëëàí

confer ïðèñóæäàòü

bequeath çàâåùàòü

intricate ñëîæíûé

embelish óêðàøàòü

effigy ïîðòðåò

regalia ðåãàëèÿ

depict îòðàæàòü

dormitory ñïàëüíÿ

LIST OF WORDS

commemoration ïàìÿòü

occur at èìåòü ìåñòî â

vanished èñ÷åçíóâøèé

obsqurity ïðåïÿòñòâèå

deprive ëèøàòü

abolition óíè÷òîæåíèå

reinforce óêðåïëÿòü

conquest çàâîåâàíèå

sovereignty ìîíàðõèÿ

accordance ñîîòâåòñòâèå

insignia çíàêè ðàçëè÷èÿ

congregation îáùèíà

realm âëàñòü

EXERCISES

I. Choose the correct definition to the following:

1. take up a) careful study or

investigation, esp.in order to

discover nnew facts or information

2. due to sth or sb b)to become or make sth completely

full

2. fill up c)to fill or occupy an amount of space or

time

3. research on d)caused by sth,sb; because of sth,sb.

4. carry out e)to do sth,as required or

specified; to fulfil sth.

Exercise II. Make all the changes necessary to produce five sentences:

I. /The collections/ are distributed/ and/ possessed/ by/ among/

departments/ over forty/ exhibition/ the museum/ its/ permanent/ seven/.

2. /An important/ the museum/ part/ is taken by/ collection/ among/ the

numismatic/ possessions/.

3./The aquisitionn of complete/of individual works/ in the 19th/ the

previous/ century/ period/ was continued/ but/ collections/ of art/ and/

on a more modest scale/ during/ than/.

4. /The Hermitage/ section/ of the very/ on the Continent/ contains/ for /

pictures/ is/ which/ a special/ few/ English/ one/.

4. /Joshua Reynolds/ all/ in/ by/ is/ 1780s/ represented/ the/ canvases/

painted/ four/.

Exercise III.Fill in the blanks with the following pronouns:

in of from on by

1. The collection has no paintings __ William Hogarth, but some __ his

prints selected ___ a large and representative collection possessed __

the Museum are usually ___ show.

2. The State Hermitage __ St Petersburg ranks among the world’s most

outstanding art museums.

3. The Museum numbers among its treasures monuments __ ancient Greece and

Rome and those__ the Greek settlements __ the North coast __ the Black

Sea.

4. Most helpful __ the Museum’s research work is the Hermitage Library.

5. It is open to every student __ art.

6. A number __ 17th -18th century works are __ show too.

EXERCISES

Exercise I. Choose the correct sentence:

1. a/ The Tretiakov Gallery was founded by a Russian painter - Tretiakov.

b/The Tretiakov Gallery was founded by a Moscow merchant and art

patron - Tretiakov.

2. a/The Gallery’s centenary was widely celebrated throughout Russia in

June 1956.

b/The Gallery’s centenary was widely celebrated throughout Russia in

May 1856.

3. a/The Gallery’s collection has grown considerably in the years since the

Revolution.

b/The Gallery’s collection has not grown since the Revolution.

4. a/The early Russian Art department and the collections of sculpture and

drawings were constant.

b/The early Rassian Art department and the collections of scylpture and

drawings were enlarged.

5. a/Tretiakov spent his life collecting the works of Russian painters.

b/Tretiakov spent 10 years collecting the works of Russiann painters.

Exercise II. Read the informatuion about the Tretiakov Gallery and answer

the following questions:

I. Is the Tretiakov Gallery one of the best-known picture galleries of the

world? Why?

2.What do you know about the history of the Tretiakov Gallery?

3.Who was it founded by?

4.When and how did Tretiakov begin his collection?

5.Did he collect antique icons?

6.He was on friendly terms with many progressive, democratic Russian

painters, wasn’t he?

7.Why did his collection grow rapidly?

8.What pictures do you know from the Tretiakov Gallery?

9.What do you know about the Tretiakov Gallery’s collection of

«Peredvizniki»?

10.What were the first pictures of Tretiakov’s collection?

EXERCISES

Exercise I. Choose the correct word to complete the sentence:

1. Buckingham Palace is the official /residence,home/ of the Her Majesty

The Queen.

2. The Queen’s House was gradually /ruined, modernised/.

3. John Nash had rightly /predicted,promised/ that the Palace would prove

too small, but this was a fault capable of remedy.

4. In 1847 the architect Edward Blore /added, took away/ the East front.

5. It /isn’t, is/ the centre of a large office complex.

6. The business of monarchy /sometimes, never/ stops.

7. Buckingham Palace became the /administrative, juriditial/ centre of the

monarchy.

8. Buckingham Palace /is, was/ built for Jihn, first Duke of Buckingham,

between 1702 and 1705.

9. The director of the Royal Collection is /responsible, look after/ for

one of the finest collections of works of art in the world.

10. The Royal collection is a vast assemblage of works of art of all

/sizes, kinds/

Exercise II. Give Russian equivalents for the following words and

expressions and use them in your own sentences:

1.potent symbols 2.carry out 3.suitor 4.predict

5.coronation

6.ill-fated 7.dignity 8.eccentricity 9.accredit 10.require

EXERCISES

Exercise I. True or false?

1. Windsor Castle is the youngest royal residence.

2. The Castle covers an area of nearly 30 acres.

3. The Castle was founded by William the Conqueror in 1080.

4. Norman castles were built to a special plan.

5. Queen Victoria spent the smallest part of a year at Windsor.

6. St George’s Chapel is the spiritual home of of the Prodder of the

Garter,Britain’s senior Order of Chivalry.

7. Windsor is only the place of beauty without any functions.

8. St George is the patron saint of the Order.

9. The Valley Gardens are open only in summer.

10. The vaulted ceiling of the Albert Memorial Chapel is decorated in gold

mosaic by Antonio Salviati.

Exercise II. Fill in the blanks with the correct tense forms of the

verbs in brackets:

In many ways Windsor Castle ____(enjoy) its apogee in the reign of

Queen Victoria. She ____ (spend) the largest portion of every year at

Windsor, and in her reign it ____(enjoy) the position of principal palace

of the British monarchy and the focus of the British Empire as well as

nearly the whole of the royal Europe. The Castle____(visit) by heads of

state from all over the world and ___(be) the scene of a series of splendid

state ____ (use) for their original purpose by royal guests.

Exercise III.

Retell the text about St George’s Chapel using the following:

spiritual home; founded by; medieval style; to bury; represented by.

EXERCISES

Exercise I. Give Russian equivalents to the following words and

expressions from

the text about Westminster Abbey and use them in sentences of your own:

1.reerect 2. clumsy 3.grave 4. intricate 5.the domer staircase 6.

Commemoration 7.

abolition 8. conquest 9. congregation 10. an auburn wig

Exercise II. Fill in the blanks with the following prepositions:

of on from for by

1.Westminster Abbey is one __ the most famous, historic and widely

visited churches not only ___ Britain but ___ the whole Christian world.

2.___ 1920 the body ___ another unknown soldier was brought back ___ the

battlefields to be reburied ___ the Abbey ___ 11 November.

3.The Henry YII Chapel, beyond the apse, was begun ___ 1503 as a bural

place ___ Henry YII, ___ the orders ___ Henry YII, but it was Henry YII

himself who was finally buried here, ___ an elaborate tomb.

4.At the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II ___1953 ,___ the first time

the service was televised and millions ___ her subjects could see and hear

the ceremony taking place.

5.The last three coronations have demonstrated continuing respect ___ the

religious significance ___ ceremony and recognition ___ the importance ___

such a public declaration ___ sovereign ___ his or her personal dedication

to the service ___ the people.

Exercise III. Answer the following questions:

1.Why is Westminster Abbey so popular not only in Britain but in the whole

world?

2.When was the Lady Chapel rebuilt as the magnificent Henry YII Chapel?

3.The Nave was begun by Abbot Litlington, wasn’t it?

4.What was originally the part of the Abbey where the monks worshiped?

5.Where does the High Altar stand?

6.Who was the first poet buried in the Abbey?

7.What do you know about processes of coronation today?

8.Have coronations always followed an identical pattern?

9.Who was crowened no less than three times?

10.What was special in the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II?

WORLD’S PAINTERS

Leonardo da Vinci 1452-1519, an Italian painter

Manet 1832-1883,a French painter

Michelangelo 1475-1564,an Italian

sculptor,painter,poet

Millet 1814-1875,a French painter

Monet 1840-1926,a French painter

Murillo 1617-1682,a Spanish painter

Phidias 5th cent.BC,a Greek sculptor

Pissaro 1830-1903, a French painter

Potter 1625-1654,a Dutch painter

Raphael 1483-1520,an Italian painter

Rembrandt 1606-1669,a Dutch painter

Reynolds 1841-1919,an English painter

Roerich 1874-1947,a Russian painter

Rubens 1577-1640,a Flemish painter

Sargent 1856-1925,an American painter

Scott,Gilbert 1811-1878,an English architect

Show, Norman 1831-1912,an English architect

Titan 1477-1576,an Italian painter

Turner 1775-1881,an English landscape painter

Van Der Helst 1613-1676,aDutch portrait painter

Van Gogh 1853-1890,a Dutch painter

Vasari 1511-1571,an Italian painter and art

historian

Velasques 1599-1660,a Spanish painter

Whistler 1834-1903,an American painter

Zurbaran 1598-1662,a Spanish painter

Ëèöåé ¹6

ÊÀÔÅÄÐÀ ÈÍÎÑÒÐÀÍÍÛÕ ßÇÛÊÎÂ

ÐÅÔÅÐÀÒ

ÍÀ ÒÅÌÓ:

“WORLD’S MUSEUMS”

Âûïîëíèëà:

Ó÷åíèöà 11-À êëàññà

Êðèâîðîòüêî È.Í.

Ïðîâåðèëà:

Êîéëèñ Í.Ã.

Â Î Ð Î Í Å Æ

1999

ðåôåðàòû Ðåêîìåíäóåì ðåôåðàòûðåôåðàòû

     
Ðåôåðàòû @2011