File:Figure studies for the balconies RMG PY3340.jpg
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Summary[edit]
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English: Figure studies for the balconies Designs for the ends of the ceiling of the Painted Hall (not executed) depicting contemporary figures symbolizing the professions. The NMM has two very similar drawings of this topic, the other being PAH3346. In an 1714 account of the scheme, the critic Richard Steele recorded that the Lord Mayor of London and merchant financier Sir James Bateman was the first to propose that the hall of Greenwich Hospital should be painted. In this trio of drawings for the staffage of the Lower Hall balconies, Thornhill acknowledges Bateman's role by using him as the personification of Merchandise (along with Chrisopher Wren as Surveying, Nicholas Hawksmoor as Architecture and himself as painting). The other figure combinations comprise a range of classical figures, and those representative of geometry, mathematics, navigation, commerce, architecture, and astronomy. Some of these figures were used in the final scheme. Cosmography with her crown of stars, for example, appears on the west balcony as executed. An important source for such stock figures was Cesare Ripa's 'Iconologia'. An English translation, with etchings by Isaac Fuller the Younger, was published as Thornhill began work on the Lower Hall. The now acidified sheet contains three studies of alternatives for the staffage of the painted end 'parapets' in the ceiling of the Painted Hall, none as finally executed but with elements that appear there in different forms. The top two rows are firmly classical with a sky background indicated. The bottom one is a modern-dress variant, spaced with four sets of double pillars and more detail of the balcony-front added. Fairly obvious emblematic figures in the top two rows are as follows. Top, left to right: second from left, Prudence or possibly Fortune, with a winged head, a mirror and a bag of money; possibly Time with a scythe over his shoulder; figures representative of geometry, mathematics or navigation, merchants with bales, architecture, figures representing astronomy and geography. Middle: navigation, geometry and architecture, astronomy and painting. The bottom row has artists talking to bewigged gentlemen left, scientists or scholars consulting books towards the centre and further painters on the right. The 1893 catalogue of the Royal Naval Museum in the Painted Hall states that this and a similar design (PAH3346) were then on display, given by the Revd. M. T. Cox of Badby, Northants. It is likely this is also one of the 5 drawings that were listed as on display in the 1876 catalogue. Inscription: In Thornhill's hand, in in, on the reverse: ' Arithmetique Jn James/Merchandize Sr J Bateman/Surveying Sr Chr Wren/Archit Hawksmoor/Painting J Thornhill/Astronomy Flamstead/Ticho Brahe/Archimedes' Strasbourg lily watermark. |
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| Date | 1707 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Dimensions | Sheet: 248 x 371 mm; Mount: 482 mm x 636 mm | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Notes | Box Title: Greenwich Box 4 James Thornhill (1). | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Source/Photographer | http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/143292 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Permission (Reusing this file) |
The original artefact or artwork has been assessed as public domain by age, and faithful reproductions of the two dimensional work are also public domain. No permission is required for reuse for any purpose. The text of this image record has been derived from the Royal Museums Greenwich catalogue and image metadata. Individual data and facts such as date, author and title are not copyrightable, but reuse of longer descriptive text from the catalogue may not be considered fair use. Reuse of the text must be attributed to the "National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London" and a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-SA-3.0 license may apply if not rewritten. Refer to Royal Museums Greenwich copyright. |
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| Identifier | id number: PAH3345 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Collection | Fine art | ||||||||||||||||||||
Licensing[edit]
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| Date/Time | Thumbnail | Dimensions | User | Comment | |
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| current | 16:12, 5 October 2017 | | 1,280 × 859 (720 KB) | Fæ (talk | contribs) | Royal Museums Greenwich Fine art (1707), http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/143292 #8915-1 |
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