Westminster Abbey - City of Westmister (London) - Paintings Then and Now on Waymarking.com

This beautiful and famous oil veduta by Canaletto, painted in 1749, depicts one of the key London' landmarks - Gothic Westminster Abbey.

Canaletto: Westminster Abbey, with a Procession of Knights of the Bath
Canaletto has painted the procession of newly installed Knights of the Order from Westminster Abbey to the House of Lords which took place on 20 June 1749. He was commissioned to paint the picture by Joseph Wilcocks, Dean of Westminster, and it has remained since it was executed in the Deanery.

The knights have emerged from the west end of the Abbey and walk round past St Margaret's church, beyond which can be seen the roof of Westminster Hall. The Abbey is shown after its recent restoration and the construction of the two west towers, an undertaking which was carried out by the architects Nicholas Hawksmoor and Sir Christopher Wren, and the picture in many ways acts as much as a commemoration of their achievements, as of the ceremony.

Canaletto may have based his depiction of the event on descriptions, rather than actually having witnessed it: the resplendent knights are impressive, but they are rather stilted in arrangement, and their scale in relation to the architecture is not completely convincing.

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Westminster Abbey, located near the Houses of Parliament, is more a historical site than a religious site. Since 1066 every royal coronation, with the exception of Edward V and Edward VIII has taken place in this church.

The Abbey also serves as the burial ground for great people of United Kingdom. The Abbey is stuffed with tombs, statues and monuments. In total approximately 3300 people are buried in the church and cloisters. You van fid here tombs of Charles Darwin, Sir Isaac Newton or David Livingstone... A church stood here already in the eight century but the history of the current abbey starts in 1050, when King Edward The Confessor decided to build a monastery. Only a small part of this Norman monastery, consecrated in 1065, survived. The only representation of this original building is shown on the Bayeux Tapestry. Majority of the present structure dates from 1245-1272, when Henry III decided to rebuild the abbey in the Gothic style. The building was later significantly expanded: the Chapel of Henry VII was added in 1503-1512, while the two West Front Towers date from 1745. The youngest part of the abbey is the North entrance, completed in the 19th century. The Abbey's magnificent Gothic nave is England's highest.

Website of painting. Exact URL of painting is required: [Web Link] Artist: Giovanni Antonio Canal (Canaletto) Date of Painting: 06/20/1749 Date of Your Photograph: 07/27/2014 Medium of Painting: oil on canvas

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