3-101-181 - "Royal Academy of Arts, London"/Heritage Images

Banqueting House, Whitehall, c1882. 'The Banqueting House [in Westminster] was built from the designs of Inigo Jones in 1619-1622...The Banqueting House is in truth but a fragment of a magnificent design. The following rhapsody is instructive, as showing the value set on Jones's work in the last century; it is from Campbell's Vitruvius Britannicus: "This incomparable Piece was designed by the immortal Jones, as one Pavilion for that admirable Model he gave for a Royal Palace; and if this Specimen has just commanded the Admiration of Mankind, what must the finished Pile have produced?...our excellent architect has introduc'd Strength with Politeness, Ornament with Simplicity, Beauty with Majesty: It is without Dispute the first Structure in the World"...The ceiling of the Banqueting House is decorated with pictures painted by Rubens at Antwerp'. Description by Alfred Marks. King Charles I was beheaded on 30 January 1649, on a scaffold set up outside the building.