Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1976.7.183
Classification:
Paintings
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Subject Terms:
pews | cathedral | men | aisle | vaulting | women | architecture | altar | arches | Gothic (Medieval) | costume | interior | nave | choir | genre subject | transept | windows | visitors | pulpit | hall | stalls | church | organ | abbey | priest | architectural subject
Associated Places:
England | United Kingdom | Greater London | City of Westminster | Westminster Abbey | London
Currently On View:
Not on view
Publications:
Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 32-33, N590.2 A83 (YCBA)
Gallery Label:
Based on the Dutch tradition of scenes of church interiors, this delightful (if slightly wobbly) view east along the choir of Westminster Abbey records a number of comparatively recent improvements. Dean Neile's pews or "prebends' stalls" were built in 1606. The benefactor Dr. Richard Busby paid for the choir to be paved with slabs of black and white marble, work that was completed in 1687. On the north side of the nave (to the left), is the "stately organ gilt" that is chiefly associated with the organists John Blow (1648?-1708), William Croft (ca. 1678-1727), and above all Henry Purcell (1659-1695). The pulpit is built against the southwest corner of the crossing of the choir and transept (to the right). Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2005