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this is the great hall of the scottish
national portrait gallery
it's a space that's alive with details
and when it was first designed in the
19th century
it was intended to inspire visitors to
learn about
the history of their country and to
imitate and
even exceed the achievements of the
figures that they're seeing
on the walls of the portrait gallery
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the freeze is really the heart of the
decoration on the interior of the
portrait gallery
it was also the first element that was
finished it's
a procession of key figures in scottish
history
strictly chronological going back from
the 19th century
all the way to early man and it's almost
as if
all the figures are looking back on the
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past
at the center of the freeze is a figure
of caledonia
the representation of scotland and she's
pulling back a curtain to reveal a
starry sky
and that is a direct connection with our
ceiling
which is a representation of the night
sky
in the northern hemisphere
the portrait in this very ornate frame
on the eastern wall of the great hall
here behind me
is of john richie finley he was a
philanthropist and
his generous donation in 1882 kind of
kick-started the project of creating a
scottish national portrait gallery
john richie finley was the owner of the
scotsman newspaper
and he had an incredibly strong sense of
civic duty
and the latin phrase above his portrait
by george reed
really alludes to that it says effort on
behalf of civic good
is never useless
eventually at the opening of the
portrait gallery in 1889 it was revealed
that
john richie finley had been this
anonymous benefactor
and he stayed involved in the
decision-making around the building
and its decorations next to it we have
an announcement that we're now about to
enter the national museum of antiquities
in the eastern part of the building
this building is the first building in
the world that was
designed as a portrait gallery but quite
quickly it became apparent
that the building would also have to
house the museum of the scottish society
of antiquaries
the coat of arms is one of many examples
of heraldry
throughout the decorative scheme of the
building
the entrance similarly bears two coats
of arms of scotland
one from a 14th century manuscript the
other
a 19th century version that is just
above the door
as you come in and really that entire
entrance
tells us that this is a building about
the history
of scotland and a very heroic history at
that is flanked by
perhaps the two most captivating figures
in scottish history namely william
wallace and robert the bruce
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in the end 10 different artists were
involved in creating the 31 figures
around the outside of the scottish
national portrait gallery
in contrast the interior decoration is a
lot more unified because it is
all the work of one artist william hull
when the portrait gallery opened the
walls were blank
the freeze wasn't here the murals
weren't here and it wasn't until 1897
that william hull
was selected as the artist for this
commission
poll originally proposed 17 scenes to
decorate the walls
of the portrait gallery but in the end
it was decided
that the walls on the ground floor would
not be decorated
so we are now left with key scenes that
take us from the mission of saint
columba
to the marriage of james iv in the early
16th century
these murals look quite flat almost like
tapestries or book illustrations
and that effect is enhanced by the
borders around each of the scenes
again the scottish flowers and leaves
connect to the carvings on the outside
of the building
the freeze was the first element of the
interior decoration that was finished
just over a year after whole had been
awarded the commission
the earliest figures represented in the
freeze are representatives of the stone
age and the bronze age
and these are references again to the
museum of antiquities in the eastern
part of the building
the freezer presents an interesting
overview of
changes in costume throughout scottish
history
it's also interesting to think about
who's missing from this freeze because
even though it aims to give a very broad
view of scotland
many figures are emitted it is a mostly
male dominated
freeze and we know that there are
certain figures that were originally
supposed to be in this freeze that were
removed in later
decisions in the preparatory drawings
for the freeze
where george jameson appears now there
was originally a space for oliver
cromwell
he would have been an isolated english
character in a majority scottish display
and he had also defeated charles the
first
the descendant of james vi the first
king
of both scotland and england so
by replacing oliver cromwell with george
jameson
they did not only remove the reference
to a defeat by us
essentially scottish king but they also
added in
the first painter of note who was born
in scotland and who was a portrait
painter
and other painters appear in the freeze
such as
david wilkie and henry rayburn
the phrase ends with thomas carlyle who
in his own lifetime was one of the most
respected intellectuals of the 19th
century
in 1854 he had sent a letter to david
lang of the society of antiquities
and explained why it was so important to
have a portrait gallery dedicated to
the great men of scotland his idea was
that history was
the sum of the achievements and the
lives of great men
our understanding of who has shaped the
history of scotland
has certainly moved on from thomas
carlisle's understanding
of history being the history of great
men
although we are housed in a 19th century
building it's
important to note that this is a
building with an agenda
it's a building that looks back to the
past to craft an inspirational narrative
about scotland for its visitors but now
we take a much more
nuanced approach and we hope that we
empower visitors
to look closer and to debate
rather than just accept one narrative
you