Cannon
A cannon is a type of gun classified as artillery that launches a projectile using propellant. In the past, gunpowder was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder in the 19th century. Cannon vary in caliber, mobility, rate of fire, angle of fire, firepower; the word cannon is derived from several languages, in which the original definition can be translated as tube, cane, or reed. In the modern era, the term cannon has fallen into decline, replaced by guns or artillery if not a more specific term such as mortar or howitzer, except for high calibre automatic weapons firing bigger rounds than machine guns, called autocannons; the earliest known depiction of cannon appeared in Song dynasty China as early as the 12th century, however solid archaeological and documentary evidence of cannon do not appear until the 13th century. In 1288 Yuan dynasty troops are recorded to have used hand cannons in combat, the earliest extant cannon bearing a date of production comes from the same period.
By 1326 depictions of cannon had appeared in Europe and immediately recorded usage of cannon began appearing. By the end of the 14th century cannon were widespread throughout Eurasia. Cannon were used as anti-infantry weapons until around 1374 when cannon were recorded to have breached walls for the first time in Europe. Cannon featured prominently as siege weapons and larger pieces appeared. In 1464 a 16,000 kg cannon known as the Great Turkish Bombard was created in the Ottoman Empire. Cannon as field artillery became more important after 1453 with the introduction of limber, which improved cannon maneuverability and mobility. European cannon reached their longer, more accurate, more efficient "classic form" around 1480; this classic European cannon design stayed consistent in form with minor changes until the 1750s. Cannon is derived from the Old Italian word cannone, meaning "large tube", which came from Latin canna, in turn originating from the Greek κάννα, "reed", generalised to mean any hollow tube-like object.
The word has been used to refer to a gun since 1326 in Italy, 1418 in England. Both Cannons and Cannon are correct and in common usage, with one or the other having preference in different parts of the English-speaking world. Cannons is more common in North America and Australia, while cannon as plural is more common in the United Kingdom; the cannon may have appeared as early as the 12th century in China, was a parallel development or evolution of the fire-lance, a short ranged anti-personnel weapon combining a gunpowder-filled tube and a polearm of some sort. Co-viative projectiles such as iron scraps or porcelain shards were placed in fire lance barrels at some point, the paper and bamboo materials of fire lance barrels were replaced by metal; the earliest known depiction of a cannon is a sculpture from the Dazu Rock Carvings in Sichuan dated to 1128, however the earliest archaeological samples and textual accounts do not appear until the 13th century. The primary extant specimens of cannon from the 13th century are the Wuwei Bronze Cannon dated to 1227, the Heilongjiang hand cannon dated to 1288, the Xanadu Gun dated to 1298.
However, only the Xanadu gun contains an inscription bearing a date of production, so it is considered the earliest confirmed extant cannon. The Xanadu Gun weighs 6.2 kg. The other cannon are dated using contextual evidence; the Heilongjiang hand cannon is often considered by some to be the oldest firearm since it was unearthed near the area where the History of Yuan reports a battle took place involving hand cannon. According to the History of Yuan, in 1288, a Jurchen commander by the name of Li Ting led troops armed with hand cannon into battle against the rebel prince Nayan. Chen Bingying argues there were no guns before 1259 while Dang Shoushan believes the Wuwei gun and other Western Xia era samples point to the appearance of guns by 1220, Stephen Haw goes further by stating that guns were developed as early as 1200. Sinologist Joseph Needham and renaissance siege expert Thomas Arnold provide a more conservative estimate of around 1280 for the appearance of the "true" cannon. Whether or not any of these are correct, it seems that the gun was born sometime during the 13th century.
References to cannon proliferated throughout China in the following centuries. Cannon featured in literary pieces. In 1341 Xian Zhang wrote a poem called The Iron Cannon Affair describing a cannonball fired from an eruptor which could "pierce the heart or belly when striking a man or horse, transfix several persons at once."By the 1350s the cannon was used extensively in Chinese warfare. In 1358 the Ming army failed to take a city due to its garrisons' usage of cannon, however they themselves would use cannon, in the thousands on during the siege of Suzhou in 1366; the Korean kingdom of Joseon started producing gunpowder in 1374 and cannon by 1377. Cannon appeared in Đại Việt by 1390 at the latest. During the Ming dynasty cannon were used in riverine warfare at the Battle of Lake Poyang. One shipwreck in Shandong had a cannon dated to 1377 and an anchor dated to 1372. From the 13th to 15th centuries cannon-armed Chinese ships travelled throughout Southeast Asia; the first of the western cannon to be introduced were breach-loaders in the early 16th century which the Chinese began producing themselves by 1523 and began improving on.
Japan did not acquire a cannon until 1510 when a monk brought one back from China, did not produce a
Solomon Joseph Solomon
Solomon Joseph Solomon was a British painter, a founding member of the New English Art Club and member of the Royal Academy. Solomon's family was Jewish, his sister, Lily Delissa Joseph, was a painter, he made an important contribution to the development of camouflage in the First World War, working in particular on tree observation posts and arguing tirelessly for camouflage netting. Born in London in 1860, Solomon studied at various art schools, Heatherley School of Fine Art, the Royal Academy Schools, the Munich Academy, École des Beaux-Arts. Solomon studied separately under Rev. S. Singer, he exhibited his first works as early as 1881, showed at the Royal Academy, the New Gallery, the Society of British Artists. In 1886, he became one of the founding members of the New English Art Club. In 1896, he became an associate of the Royal Academy, with full membership following in 1906, one of the few Jewish painters to do so, he joined, became president of, the Royal Society of British Artists in 1919.
In 1921 "Col. S. J. Solomon, R. A. P. R. B. A." was listed as one of the early members of the newly-formed Society of Graphic Art. Solomon's painting was grounded in his influence from his teacher Alexandre Cabanel, but was influenced by Frederic Leighton and Lawrence Alma-Tadema. Solomon painted portraits to earn a living, but painted dramatic, theatrical scenes from mythology and the bible on large canvasses; these scenes include some of his more popular paintings. In 1897 he painted a mural for the Royal Exchange, London Charles I demanding the Five Members at the Guildhall, 1641–42. One of Solomon's most popular works was Samson, depicting a scene from the biblical story of Samson and Delilah; this painting was praised for its use of multiple male nudes in active poses. Samson is one of few Solomon paintings on regular display, at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool; some other Solomon paintings that have received significant attention include Ajax and Cassandra and The Birth of Love. Solomon became well known as an innovative portrait artist by the time he painted Mrs Patrick Campbell as'Paula Tanqueray', her role in Arthur Wing Pinero's The Second Mrs Tanqueray, went on to paint a number of portraits of well-known people, including the architect Sir Aston Webb, in life, the royals King George V, Queen Mary, Prince Edward.
Solomon was in demand as a book illustrator adventure books. In 1914, Solomon authored The Practice of Oil Drawing. During World War I, Solomon was a pioneer of camouflage techniques. Having signed-up at the start of the war as a private in The Artists Rifles, a home defence corps, he promoted his ideas on camouflage in the press and directly to senior army officers. In December 1915, General Herbert Plumer arranged for Solomon to visit the front lines and investigate techniques in use by the French, his ideas were accepted, he was asked to set up a team to start the production of camouflage materials in France. On 31 December 1915, General Haig, Commander-in-chief of the British forces in France, instructed that Solomon be given the temporary rank of Lieutenant-Colonel to enable him to carry out his new duties; the new unit's first task was the design of armoured observation posts disguised as trees, following the pioneering work of the French Section de Camouflage led by Lucien-Victor Guirand de Scévola.
The first British tree observation post was put up on 22 March 1916. Solomon was effective at the artistic and technical tasks of designing trees and nets, but not as a commander, he was replaced in March 1916, instead becoming a role that suited him better. In May 1916, he was sent to England to help develop tank camouflage. Solomon doubted that tanks could be camouflaged since they cast a large shadow. Instead, he argued for the use of camouflage netting, with which he became obsessed, claiming that the Germans were hiding huge armies under immense nets. Camouflage netting was at first considered unimportant by the army. In 1920, he published a book, Strategic Camouflage, arguing this case, to critical derision in England but with some support from German newspapers. In December 1916, Solomon established a camouflage school in Hyde Park, taken over by the army. Solomon's daughter, was married to Ewen Montagu, one of the "brains" behind Operation Mincemeat in World War Two. Solomon was an uncle of the American playwright Moss Hart.
Rankin, Nicholas. Churchill's Wizards: The British Genius for Deception 1914-1945. Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-22196-7. Bach, Steven. Dazzler: The Life and Times of Moss Hart. Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0306811357. Forbes, Peter. Dazzled and Deceived: Mimicry and Camouflage. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0300178968. 74 paintings by or after Solomon Joseph Solomon at the Art UK site Solomon Joseph Solomon at Find a Grave THE PRACTICE OF OIL PAINTING AND OF DRAWING AS ASSOCIATED WITH IT Profile on Royal Academy of Arts Collections
Antwerp
Antwerp is a city in Belgium, is the capital of Antwerp province in Flanders. With a population of 520,504, it is the most populous city proper in Belgium, with 1,200,000 the second largest metropolitan region after Brussels. Antwerp is on the River Scheldt, linked to the North Sea by the river's Westerschelde estuary, it is about 40 kilometres north of Brussels, about 15 kilometres south of the Dutch border. The Port of Antwerp is one of the biggest in the world, ranking second in Europe and within the top 20 globally; the city is known for its diamond industry and trade. Both economically and culturally, Antwerp is and has long been an important city in the Low Countries before and during the Spanish Fury and throughout and after the subsequent Dutch Revolt. Antwerp was the place of the world's oldest stock exchange building built in 1531 and re-built in 1872; the inhabitants of Antwerp are nicknamed Sinjoren, after the Spanish honorific señor or French seigneur, "lord", referring to the Spanish noblemen who ruled the city in the 17th century.
The city hosted the 1920 Summer Olympics. According to folklore, notably celebrated by a statue in front of the town hall, the city got its name from a legend about a giant called Antigoon who lived near the Scheldt river, he extracted a toll from passing boatmen, for those who refused, he severed one of their hands and threw it into the river. The giant was killed by a young hero named Silvius Brabo, who cut off the giant's own hand and flung it into the river. Hence the name Antwerpen, from Dutch hand werpen, akin to Old English hand and wearpan, which has evolved to today's warp. A longstanding theory is that the name originated in the Gallo-Roman period and comes from the Latin antverpia. Antverpia would come from Ante Verpia, indicating land that forms by deposition in the inside curve of a river. Note that the river Scheldt, before a transition period between 600 and 750, followed a different track; this must have coincided with the current ringway south of the city, situating the city within a former curve of the river.
However, many historians think it unlikely that there was a large settlement which would be named'Antverpia', but more something like an outpost with a river crossing. However, John Lothrop Motley argues, so do a lot of Dutch etymologists and historians, that Antwerp's name derives from "anda" and "werpum" to give an't werf. Aan't werp is possible; this "warp" is a man-made hill or a river deposit, high enough to remain dry at high tide, whereupon a construction could be built that would remain dry. Another word for werp is pol hence polders. Alfred Michiels has suggested that derivations based on hand werpen, Antverpia, "on the wharf", or "at the warp" lack historical backing in the form of recorded past spellings of the placename, he points instead to Dado's Life of St. Eligius from the 7th century, which records the form Andoverpis, he sees in it a Celtic origin indicating "those who live on both banks". Historical Antwerp had its origins in a Gallo-Roman vicus. Excavations carried out in the oldest section near the Scheldt, 1952–1961, produced pottery shards and fragments of glass from mid-2nd century to the end of the 3rd century.
The earliest mention of Antwerp dates from the 4th century. In the 4th century, Antwerp was first named; the Merovingian Antwerp was evangelized by Saint Amand in the 7th century. At the end of the 10th century, the Scheldt became the boundary of the Holy Roman Empire. Antwerp became a margraviate in 980, by the German emperor Otto II, a border province facing the County of Flanders. In the 11th century, the best-known leader of the First Crusade, Godfrey of Bouillon, was Margrave of Antwerp, from 1076 until his death in 1100, though he was also Duke of Lower Lorraine and Defender of the Holy Sepulchre. In the 12th century, Norbert of Xanten established a community of his Premonstratensian canons at St. Michael's Abbey at Caloes. Antwerp was the headquarters of Edward III during his early negotiations with Jacob van Artevelde, his son Lionel, the Duke of Clarence, was born there in 1338. After the silting-up of the Zwin and the consequent decline of Bruges, the city of Antwerp part of the Duchy of Brabant, grew in importance.
At the end of the 15th century the foreign trading houses were transferred from Bruges to Antwerp, the building assigned to the English nation is mentioned in 1510. Antwerp became the sugar capital of Europe, importing the raw commodity from Portuguese and Spanish plantations; the city attracted Italian and German sugar refiners by 1550, shipped their refined product to Germany Cologne. Moneylenders and financiers developed a large business lending money all over Europe including the English government in 1544–1574. London bankers were too small to operate on that scale, Antwerp had a efficient bourse that itself attracted rich bankers from around Europe. After the 1570s, the city's banking business declined: England ended its borrowing in Antwerp in 1574. Fernand Braudel states that Antwerp became "the centre of the entire international economy, something Bruges had never been at its height." Antwerp was the richest city in Europe at this time. Antwerp's golden age is l
Stanhope Forbes
Stanhope Alexander Forbes was a British artist and a founding member of the influential Newlyn school of painters. He was called'the father of the Newlyn School'. Forbes was born in Dublin, the son of Juliette de Guise Forbes, a French woman, William Forbes, an English railway manager, transferred to London, he had an older brother named Sir William Forbes, a railway manager for the London and South Coast Railway. He was married in the summer of 1889 to fellow painter Elizabeth Armstrong at Newlyn's St Peter's Church, their first home was at the "Cliffs Castle" cottage. They had a son named Alexander; the couple had a home built for the family in Penzance. Elizabeth died in 1912. In 1915, Forbes married friend and previous student Maudie Palmer, "assistant and friend to the whole Forbes family." During the First World War his son Alec served in the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry and was killed in August 1916. He is buried in Guillemont Road Cemetery where his headstone bears an inscription composed by his father: HE SAW BEYOND THE FILTH OF BATTLE, AND THOUGHT DEATH A FAIR PRICE TO PAY TO BELONG TO THE COMPANY OF THESE FELLOWS.
Stanhope Forbes sculpted and erected a memorial to his son in their local parish church with the inscription: "I will get me out of my COUNTRY & from my KINDRED & from my FATHER'S house unto a LAND that GOD will shew me". Forbes died in Newlyn on 2 March 1947 at the age of 89, he was buried in the churchyard of Sancreed Parish Church. Educated at Dulwich College, he studied art under John Sparkes who taught at South Kensington School of Art, his father worked for the Luxembourg Railway and after a period of poor health Forbes was removed from Dulwich College and studied under private teachers in Brussels. This afforded additional time to draw. After the end of the Franco-Prussian War, the Forbes returned to London. John Sparkes helped influence William Forbes to recognise his son's artistic talent, Stanhope Forbes attended Lambeth School of Art. By 1878 he attended the Royal Academy under Sir John Millais. Fellow students at the academy included Arthur Hacker, Henry Herbert La Thangue and Solomon J. Solomon.
He participated in his first exhibition there. Forbes returned to Ireland for a few months to visit Dr Andrew Melville, family friend and Queen's College professor. While there the men shared their appreciation of art and Forbes painted landscapes of the Galway area, he received his first commission for a portrait. Back in London, at the age of 18, he received another commission for a portrait of a doctor's daughter, Florence, it was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1879. He studied at the private atelier of Léon Bonnat in Clichy, Paris from 1880 to 1882. Henry Herbert La Thangue, who attended Dulwich College, Lambeth School of Art and the Royal Academy, came to Paris and studied at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts. Arthur Hacker, a friend from the Royal Academy joined Forbes at Bonnat's atelier. In 1881 Forbes and La Thangue went to Cancale and painted en plein air, like Jules Bastien-Lepage, which became a technique that Forbes used throughout his career. Of Brittany, Mrs Lionel Birch wrote: In that most beautiful and interesting portion of France, there seemed to be found everything that an artist could desire.
Inhabited by a race of a distinct and marked type, wearing still the beautiful national costumes, handed down from bygone ages, retaining the old language of their forefathers, each village followed religiously the old traditions which ordered the fashion of their dress and the conduct of their lives. Here was a country dear to all who love that, old and quaint, time-honoured, reminiscent of past ages. A painting made there, A Street in Brittany, was shown and well received at the 1882 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and sold that year to the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool. During an 1883 trip to Brittany, Forbes stayed at Quimperlé, his Breton Children in an Orchard - Quimperlé, was shown at the 1884 Royal Hibernian Academy. Two other works were made Fair Measures: a shop in Quimperlé and Preparations for the Market, Quimperlé. True to his degree of satisfaction, the Fair Measures painting was well-received and the Market painting was found to be too blue and shadowless. Since blue was the colour of the Breton costumes, Forbes decided that it might be useful to change locations for a broader range of subjects and colours.
Other artists who were painting in Brittany at the time and who Forbes may have met, were Norman Garstin, Nathaniel Hill, Joseph Malachy Kavanagh and Walter Osborne. Having completed his studies in France, Forbes returned to London and showed works he made in Brittany at the 1883 Royal Academy and Royal Hibernian Academy shows. In 1884 he moved to Newlyn in Cornwall, soon became a leading figure in the growing colony of artists. Of this place, Forbes said: I had come from France and, wandering down into Cornwall, came one spring morning along that dusty road by which Newlyn is approached from Penzance. Little did I think that the cluster of grey-roofed houses which I saw before me against the hillside would be my home for many years. What lode-some of artistic metal the place contains. There are plenty of names amongst them which are still, I hope will long by, associated with Newlyn, the beauty of this fair
Paul Reuter
Paul Julius Freiherr von Reuter was a German-born, British entrepreneur, a pioneer of telegraphy and news reporting. He was a reporter and media owner, the founder of Reuters News Agency, which became part of the Thomson Reuters conglomerate in 2008. Reuter was born as Israel Beer Josaphat in Germany, his father, Samuel Levi Josaphat, was a rabbi. His mother was Betty Sanders. In Göttingen, Reuter met Carl Friedrich Gauss, experimenting with the transmission of electrical signals via wire. On 29 October 1845, he moved to London. On 16 November 1845, he converted to Christianity in a ceremony at St. George's German Lutheran Chapel in London, changed his name to Paul Julius Reuter. One week in the same chapel, he married Ida Maria Elizabeth Clementine Magnus of Berlin, daughter of a German banker. A former bank clerk, in 1847 he became a partner in Reuter and Stargardt, a Berlin book-publishing firm; the distribution of radical pamphlets by the firm at the beginning of the 1848 Revolution may have focused official scrutiny on Reuter.
That year, he left for Paris and worked in Charles-Louis Havas' news agency, Agence Havas, the future Agence France Presse. As telegraphy evolved, Reuter founded his own news agency in Aachen, transferring messages between Brussels and Aachen using carrier pigeons and thus linking Berlin and Paris. Speedier than the post train, pigeons gave Reuter faster access to financial news from the Paris stock exchange. Pigeons were replaced by a direct telegraph link. A telegraph line was under construction between Britain and Europe, so Reuter moved to London, renting an office near the Stock Exchange. In 1863, he erected a telegraph link to Crookhaven, the farthest south-west point of Ireland. On nearing Crookhaven, ships from America threw canisters containing news into the sea; these were retrieved by Reuters and telegraphed directly to London, arriving long before the ships reached Cork. In 1872, Nasir al-Din Shah, the Shah of Iran, signed an agreement with Reuter, a concession selling him all railroads, most of the mines, all the government's forests, all future industries of Iran.
George Nathaniel Curzon called it "The most complete and extraordinary surrender of the entire industrial resources of a kingdom into foreign hands, dreamed of". The Reuter concession was denounced by all ranks of businessmen and nationalists of Persia, it was forced into cancellation. On 17 March 1857, Reuter was naturalised as a British subject. On 7 September 1871, the Duke of Gotha granted him the noble title of Freiherr. In November 1891, Queen Victoria granted him the right to use that German title in Britain. In 1845, Reuter married Ida Maria Magnus, daughter of Friedrich Martin Magnus, a German banker in Berlin, they had three sons: Herbert, who became the 2nd Baron and Alfred. Clementine Maria, one of his daughters, married Count Otto Stenbock, after Stenbock's death, Sir Herbert Chermside, a governor of Queensland; the 2nd Baron's brother George had two sons and Ronald. The last member of the family, Baroness de Reuter, widow of the 4th Baron and Paul Julius Reuter's granddaughter-in-law, died on 25 January 2009, at the age of 96.
Reuter died in 1899 at Villa Reuter in France. He was buried in West Norwood Cemetery in south London. Reuter was portrayed by Edward G. Robinson in the Warner Bros. biographical film A Dispatch from Reuter's. The Reuters News Agency commemorated the 100th anniversary of the death of its founder by launching a university award in Germany. German inventors and discoverers Reuters "Reuter, Paul Julius, Baron de". Encyclopædia Britannica. 1911. "Reuter, Paul Julius, Baron". Encyclopedia Americana. 1920. "Reuter, Paul Julius, Baron". New International Encyclopedia. 1905. 3D photo scan of the Paul Reuters statue in London on sketchfab.com
Wenceslaus Hollar
Wenceslaus Hollar, one of the most prolific and accomplished graphic artists of the 17th century, was Bohemian, noted for his engravings and etchings. He is known by speakers of German as Wenzel Hollar and by Czech speakers as Václav Hollar Czech:, he was born in Prague, died in London, was buried at St Margaret's Church, Westminster. After his family was ruined by the Sack of Prague in the Thirty Years' War, the young Hollar, destined for the legal profession, decided to become an artist; the earliest of his works that have come down to us are dated 1625 and 1626. In 1627 he was in Frankfurt. In 1630 he lived in Strasbourg and Koblenz, where Hollar portrayed the towns and landscapes of the Middle Rhine Valley. In 1633 he moved to Cologne, it was in 1636 that he attracted the notice of the famous nobleman and art collector Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel on a diplomatic mission to the imperial court of Emperor Ferdinand II. Employed as a draftsman, he travelled with Arundel to Prague. In Cologne in 1635, Hollar published his first book.
In 1637 he went with Arundel to England. Though he remained an artist in service of Lord Arundel, he seems not to have worked for him, after the earl's death in Padua in 1646, Hollar earned his living by working for various authors and publishers, afterwards his primary means of distribution. After Lord Arundel's death in 1646 at the request of Hendrik van der Borcht, he etched a commemorative print done after a design by Cornelius Schut in Arundel's honour, dedicated to his widow Aletheia. Arundel is seated in melancholy mode on his tomb in front of an obelisk, surrounded by works of art and their personifications. In 1745, George Vertue paid homage to their association in the vignette he published on page one of his Description of the Works of the Ingenious Delineator and Engraver Wenceslaus Hollar, it featured a bust of Arundel in front of a pyramid, symbolizing immortality, surrounded by illustrated books and the instruments of Hollar's trade. During his first year in England he created "View of Greenwich" issued by Peter Stent, the print-seller.
Nearly 3 feet long, he received thirty shillings for the plate, a small fraction of its present value. Afterwards he fixed the price of his work at fourpence an hour, measured his time by a sand-glass. On July 4, 1641 Hollar married a lady-in-waiting to the Countess of Norfolk, her name was Tracy. Arundel had left England by 1642, Hollar passed into the service of the Duke of York, taking with him his young family, he continued to produce works prolifically throughout the English Civil War, but it adversely affected his income. With other royalist artists, notably Inigo Jones and William Faithorne the engraver, he stood the long and eventful siege of Basing House, as there were some hundred plates from his hand dated during the years 1643 and 1644 he must have turned his enforced leisure to good purpose. An etching dated 1643 and entitled civilis seditio epitomizes the war with a snake with a head at each end pulling in opposite directions in front of the Giza pyramids and sphinx. Hollar took his setting symbolizing longer term values, directly from an engraving published in George Sandys' Relation of a Journey begun An.
Dom 1610. Hollar joined the Royalist Regiment and was captured by parliamentary forces in 1645 during the siege of Basing House. After a short time he managed to escape. In Antwerp in 1646, he again met with the Earl of Arundel. During this period of the unrest of the Civil Wars, he worked in Antwerp, where he produced many of his most renowned works, including Dutch cityscapes, depictions of nature, his "muffs" and "shells". In 1652 he returned to London, lived for a time with Faithorne near Temple Bar. In the following years, many books were published which he illustrated: Ogilby's Virgil and Homer, Stapylton's Juvenal, Dugdale's Warwickshire, St Paul's and Monasticon. However, his work for the booksellers was poorly paid, Hollar's commissions declined as the Court no longer purchased his works after the Restoration. During this time he lost his young son, reputed to have artistic ability, to the plague. After the Great Fire of London he produced some of his famous "Views of London". During his return to England a desperate and successful engagement was fought by his ship, the Mary Rose, under Captain John Kempthorne, against seven Algerian men-of-war.
He lived eight years after his return, still producing illustrations for booksellers, continuing to produce well-regarded works until his death, for example a large plate of Edinburgh dated 1670. He died in extreme poverty, his last recorded words being a request to the bailiffs that they would not carry away the bed on which he was dying. Hollar is interred in St Margaret's Church in Westminster. Hollar was one of the best and most prolific artists of his time, his work includes 3000 etchings. Hollar produced a variety of works, his architectural drawings, such
Grinling Gibbons
Grinling Gibbons was an English sculptor and wood carver known for his work in England, including Windsor Castle and Hampton Court Palace, St. Paul's Cathedral and other London churches, Petworth House and other country houses, Trinity College Oxford and Trinity College Cambridge. Gibbons was educated in Holland of English parents, his father being a merchant, he was a member of the Drapers' Company of London. He is regarded as the finest wood carver working in England, the only one whose name is known among the general public. Most of his work is in lime wood decorative Baroque garlands made up of still-life elements at about life size, made to frame mirrors and decorate the walls of churches and palaces, but he produced furniture and small relief plaques with figurative scenes, he worked in stone for churches. By the time he was established he led a large workshop, the extent to which his personal hand appears in work varies. Little is known about his early life; the name Grinling is formed from sections of two family names.
He was born in Rotterdam, it is sometimes thought that his father may have been the Englishman Samuel Gibbons, who worked under Inigo Jones, but two of his closest acquaintances, the portrait painter Thomas Murray and the diarist John Evelyn, cannot agree on how he came to be introduced to King Charles II. He moved to Deptford, England around 1667, by 1693 had accepted commissions from the royal family and had been appointed as a master carver. By 1680 he was known as the "King's Carver", carried out exquisite work for St Paul's Cathedral, Windsor Castle, the Earl of Essex's house at Cassiobury, his carving was so fine that it was said a pot of carved flowers above his house in London would tremble from the motion of passing coaches. The diarist Evelyn first discovered Gibbons' talent by chance in 1671. Evelyn, from whom Gibbons rented a cottage near Evelyn's home in Sayes Court, wrote the following: "I saw the young man at his carving, by the light of a candle. I saw him to be engaged on a carved representation of Tintoretto's "Crucifixion", which he had in a frame of his own making."
That same evening, Evelyn described what he had seen to Sir Christopher Wren. Wren and Evelyn introduced him to King Charles II who gave him his first commission – still resting in the dining room of Windsor Castle. Horace Walpole wrote about Gibbons: "There is no instance of a man before Gibbons who gave wood the loose and airy lightness of flowers, chained together the various productions of the elements with the free disorder natural to each species." Gibbons is buried at Covent Garden, London. Gibbons was employed by Wren to work on St Paul's Cathedral and was appointed as master carver to George I, he was commissioned by King William III to create carvings, some of which adorn Kensington Palace today. An example of his work can be seen in the Presence Chamber above the fireplace, intended to frame a portrait of Queen Mary II after her death in 1694. In the Orangery at Kensington, you can see some his pieces. Many fine examples of his work can still be seen in the churches around London – the choir stalls and organ case of St Paul's Cathedral.
Some of the finest Gibbons carvings accessible to the general public are those on display at the National Trust's Petworth House in West Sussex, UK. At Petworth the Carved Room is host to a fine and extensive display of intricate wooden carvings by Gibbons, his association with Deptford is commemorated locally: Grinling Gibbons Primary School is in Clyde Street, near the site of Sayes Court in Deptford. Most of present-day New Cross and Brockley wards were in 1978–1998 part of the Grinling Gibbons ward, his work can be seen in the London churches of St Michael Paternoster Royal and St James, where he carved the wood reredos and marble font. The Anglican dislike of painted altarpieces left a large space on the east wall that needed filling, which gave Grinling's garlands a prominent position, as here. In 1682 King Charles II commissioned Gibbons to carve a panel as a diplomatic gift for his political ally Cosimo III, Grand Duke of Tuscany; the Cosimo Panel is an allegory of art triumphing over hatred and turmoil and includes a medallion with a low relief of Pietro da Cortona, Cosimos favourite painter.
The panel is housed in the Pitti Palace in Florence. It was displayed in the United Kingdom in the Grinling Gibbons and the Art of Carving exhibition held at the V&A from 22 October 1998 until 24 January 1999. In 1685 the new king James II asked Gibbons to carve a panel for another Italian ally, the Duke of Modena Francesco II, brother to his second wife Mary of Modena; the Modena Panel is a memento mori for Charles II who died earlier that year and includes a funeral dirge from the play The Contention of Ajax and Ulysses by dramatist James Shirley: "There is no armour against fate. It features a medallion self-portrait of Gibbons; the panel is displayed in the Estense Gallery in Modena. St. Peter and St. Paul church in Exton, Rutland has a fine marble tomb by Gibbons, dating from 1685, showing Viscount Campden with his fourth wife, Elizabeth Bertie, carvings of his 19 children; the famous sculptor of Brussels Peter van Dievoet had collaborated with Grinling Gibbons, but went back to Brussels after the revolution of 1688.
St Michael and All Angels Church, has a monument by Gibbons to Henry Somerset, 1st Duke of Beaufort. He was buried alongside his ancestors in the Beaufort Chapel in St George's Chapel, but the monument
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