London Landscape Observer: Royal River, Power Pageantry Exhibition... or Spectacle and the Appropriation of Landscape

Friday 23 March 2012

Royal River, Power Pageantry Exhibition... or Spectacle and the Appropriation of Landscape

Canaletto, Greenwich Hospital from the North Bank of the Thames, c 1750–2 National Maritime Museum, London

Guy Debord's "The Society of the Spectacle" dealt with the commodification of experience in the modern world. But clearly, Spectacle was innate in the application of power in the ancient world, Middle Ages, and the Renaissance. This exhibition documents have appropriated the landscape of the Thames to create a linear theatre of pageantry, combining security for the elite with maximum exposure, broadcasting in an age before broadcasts

"From London’s birth, royalty have looked to the Thames to display their power, patronage and pageantry to a city and a people intimately and inextricably connected to the water."
Royal River explores the relationship between the monarch, the City and the people, as it was brought to life on the Thames – London’s greatest thoroughfare.

Don't miss

Taking in the palaces, processions, parties and promenades that made the London we know today, Royal River brings together paintings, manuscripts and rare and beautiful objects. Among the items are Handel’s autographed score for the Music for the Royal Fireworks, the magnificent stern carvings from the Royal Yacht Victoria and Albert III and a remarkable collection of artworks by Canaletto.