The Ceiling of the Chapel Royal. The striking blue and gold ceiling is the dominant feature of the Chapel Royal and was begun by order of King Henry VIII early in 1535. The work was supervised by a master carver and a master carpenter from the nearby town of Kingston upon Thames. They recruited fifty craftsmen and a number of labourers, many of whom had already worked on other parts of the palace. A works yard was established at Sonning, on the river bank about thirty miles up-river from Hampton. The units of the ceiling of the Chapel were carved at Sonning and taken by water to Hampton as they were completed. The first units were delivered in August 1535, and the deliveries were completed in December and installation commenced. The work of hoisting the carved timbers into position and fixing them with great spykes of irne took a further nine months, after which two London painters, John Heath and Harry Blankston, came on site to complete the payntyng, gyltyng and varnesshyng. No chance is lost to propagate the Tudor dynastic image in the Chapel Royal. Along the top of the walls are the Kings arms, the rose combining the red and white of York and Lancaster, and the heraldic badge of the portcullis, inherited from Henrys grandmother, Margaret Beaufort. The pendants down the centre of the ceiling again reflect the red and white, and the main pendants are picked out in the green and white livery colours of the house of Tudor. The Royal motto “Honi soit qui mal y pense”(with the Ns reversed in a fine example of the sixteenth centurys casual attitude to orthography) is repeated on the cross-beams. The overall colour of the ceiling is byse, the attractive shade of blue which was popular in Tudor times.
Posted on: Tue, 05 Aug 2014 22:55:20 +0000
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