Royal Scottish Academy Building, Edinburgh

TheCameraMuseum.
recent  |  interesting  |  random  |  favorites  |  contacts  |  sets  |  tags:  
Royal Scottish Academy Building, Edinburgh
Royal Scottish Academy Building, Edinburgh

Designed by the eminent William Henry Playfair, 1822-6 for the Board of Manufactures and Fisheries. Playfair was asked to enlarge his building by one third, which he did, from 1832-35. This arguably improved it’s composition. A Greek Doric temple built from Culallo and Craigleith sandstone ashlar. Fluted Greek Doric columns; acanthus frieze below Doric entablature with wreathed metopes and mutuled cornice; scrolled foliate carving in pediments. Prostyle octastyle porticoes to N and S. Colonnades to W and E with distyle pedimented projections to ends. Statue of Queen Victoria above N portico and paired sphinxes to each corner.

It was completed in 1836, one year before the beginning of Queen Victoria's long reign which would last for the rest of the century. In 1844, at the height of the British Empire, Playfair's original building was further embellished by the addition of an enormous statue of Her Imperial Majesty surveying the crowds in the Capital's busiest shopping street (statue and sphinxes by Sir John Steell). Since 1911 the building has been the home of the Royal Scottish Academy, which has a magnificent collection of works by Scottish artists.

Over the course of January 1838, Queen Victoria sat for John Steell five times at Windsor Castle, for Steell to prepare a clay model. On 29 October 1842 The Scotsman reported that 'an immense block of freestone' from Binny Quarry had been delivered to a 'large wooden building in Bread-street,’ the last of a number of blocks which were to make up the colossal statue of the Queen. The paper reported that 'Mr Steell is already far advanced in the formation of this gigantic structure which, when completed, will weigh upwards of ninety tons.’

© All Rights Reserved
Taken on: March 21, 2015
Tags: Everybody's photos tagged with 35mm Summicron v2 35mm Summicron v2 Everybody's photos tagged with William Henry Playfair William Henry Playfair Everybody's photos tagged with RSA RSA more » Everybody's photos tagged with Royal Scottish Academy Royal Scottish Academy Everybody's photos tagged with Doric Doric Everybody's photos tagged with Queen Victoria Queen Victoria Everybody's photos tagged with Sir John Steell Sir John Steell Everybody's photos tagged with Pediment Pediment Everybody's photos tagged with Frieze Frieze Everybody's photos tagged with Edinburgh Edinburgh Everybody's photos tagged with Statue Statue Everybody's photos tagged with Sphinx Sphinx Everybody's photos tagged with Column Column Everybody's photos tagged with Temple Temple Everybody's photos tagged with Greek Greek Everybody's photos tagged with Gallery Gallery Everybody's photos tagged with Octastyle Octastyle « less
Sets appears in:   • Edinburgh    • Edinburgh's New Town   
Groups appears in:   • Buildings/Architecture    • Architecture and Buildings    more » • FlickrToday (only 1 pic per day)    • architectural photography    • Edinburgh Style    • Classical Architecture.    • Architectural Beauty !    • (Officially) Scotland's Best Buildings    • Edinburgh Photo Project    • MENTIONED *** PICS    • PURE ARCHITECTURE / PARAMETRICISM    « less
Camera: Leica Camera AG M9 Digital Camera, f/3.4, 1/250 sec, 35mm, ISO 160 (more info) (hide info)
Camera: Leica Camera AG M9 Digital Camera
Lens: Leica Summicron-M 35mm f/2 (IV)
Aperture: f/3.4
Exposure Time: 0.004 sec (1/250)
Focal Length: 35mm
ISO: 160
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: No Flash
Exposure Program: Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode: Manual
Metering Mode: Center-weighted average
White Balance: Auto
Color Space: Uncalibrated
Software: Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 Editor 10.0 Macintosh
Show full info
Stats: 2,629 views