Design for the west wall (second project)<br><p>An unexecuted design post-dating PAH9660 for the 'great west front' in the Upper Hall, but containing a number of elements which appear in variant form in the final version. These include the flanking piers of quadri-style Corinthian columns (eventually executed as a symmetrical pair based on the pattern on the left here, including its flying figure group drawing back the curtain to the left); the seated figure of George I and the standing figures of his son George II as Prince of Wales (in armour, but here turned with back to viewer) and of Prince Frederick standing by the King.
</p><p>The urn on the right was discarded but the trophies of arms below the pillars were retained as were, in differing forms, the allegorical figures behind the King (including Justice) and the pyramid, signifying the stability of the dynasty (positions reversed in the final scheme). The curved arcade seen in the background was replaced by a view of the dome of St Paul's Cathedral beneath a less billowing sky. The addition of the cathedral dome was a nice self-referential detail: in 1715 Thornhill had won the competition to paint its interior. The pavilion on the right was retained at a lower level. The most important addition would be Mercury who gestures towards an inscription from virgil's Eclogues added to the wall's fictive cornice in the final scheme: 'Iam Nova Progenies Coelo' (a new generation has descended from the heavens). For the final version see, for example, John Bold, 'Greenwich; An Architectural History ... (London, 2000), pls. 197, 198, facing p.150. 'Sir James Thornhill' is inscribed in pencil on the pillar base, lower left.
</p><p>An earlier design for the entire west elevation or 'great front' is in the V&amp;A collection, E.4262-1920.
</p><p>Strasbourg lily watermark.<br></p>
The Painted Hall, Greenwich Hospital, Old Royal Naval College, design for the west wall
<bdi><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:James_Thornhill" class="extiw" title="w:en:James Thornhill"><span title="British painter (1675-1734)">James Thornhill</span></a>
</bdi>
between 1717 and 1718 <div style="display: none;">date QS:P571,+1717-00-00T00:00:00Z/8,P1319,+1717-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1326,+1718-00-00T00:00:00Z/9</div>
<a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/143295">http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/143295</a>