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 | Art Treasure of London: The reliefs on the Albert Memorial were carved in situ by H. H. Armstead and J. B. Philip who included only one living person -Scott, its designer. These two sixteenth and seventeenth-century architects are Andrea Palladio (with the dividers) and Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola. Armstead sculpted the poets, musicians and painters; Philip the architects. By 1875, three years after completion of the work, the reliefs had become stained: the suggestion that they be covered with glass to preserve them has never been adopted. click to open  |  | Art Treasure of London: During her long widowhood, Queen Victoria made sure no-one forgot her husband. The Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens, a few yards from the site of the Great Exhibition which he organized in 1851, is everything the Prince did not want. He dreaded the idea of a monument, fearing 'if (as is very likely) it became an artistic monstrosity ... it would upset my equanimity to be permanently ridiculed and laughed at in effigy.' Most of Sir George Gilbert Scott's elaborate, altar-like memorial, which the Queen chose, is overdone but the podium frieze is extremely fine. Carved in marble are figures of 169 painters, sculptors, poets, musicians and architects whom the Victorians considered the most eminent in history. The group illustrated are musicians-Rossini, Monteverde, Carissimi, Palestrina, St Ambrose and, seated, the tenth- century Benedictine monk, Guido d'Arezzo. click to open |  | City scenes of London: An avenue of bay trees, clipped holly and hawthorn bushes shelter the lawn and Orangery in Kensington Gardens from the pleached lime arbour enclosing the palace's sunken garden, an Edwardian replacement for one created for Queen Anne. The Queen always came to Kensington Palace at Easter and, with the help of Henry Wise, extended the gardens around her home, though it was Caroline of Anspach who dictated most of the present layout. The baroque redbrick Orangery was designed for Anne by Sir John Vanbrugh, possibly with help from Nicholas Hawksmoor. The interior, with carvings by Grinling Gibbons and remarkable statuary, is very fine, and here she took tea and gave supper parties. click to open |
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