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
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