Castell de Windsor - Capella de Sant Jordi

Ian G. Brennan (born 1950) is the official

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

to the

Most Noble Order of the Garter The Most Noble Order of the Garter is an order of chivalry founded by Edward III of England in 1348. It is the most senior order of knighthood in the British honours system, outranked in precedence only by the Victoria Cross and the George ...

and

Most Honourable Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved bathing (as a symbol of purification) as on ...

. Brennan has received over ninety-five commissions for the Royal Household; these include over seventy-five carved and painted crowns, coronets and crests. Those of the Garter knights have been installed in St George's Chapel at

Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost a millennium of architectural history. The original c ...

. Those of the Knights of the Bath have been installed in

Henry VII Lady Chapel The Henry VII Lady Chapel, now more often known just as the Henry VII Chapel, is a large Lady chapel at the far eastern end of Westminster Abbey, paid for by the will of King Henry VII. It is separated from the rest of the abbey by brass gates a ...

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the Unite ...

Royal commissions

Brennan's commissions in both wood and bronze for the British Royal Household have drawn other patrons. In the nearly 30 years since his appointment as official sculptor to Britain's two most prestigious orders, the artist has completed commissions for the King of Spain, the

Queen of the Netherlands The monarchy of the Netherlands is a constitutional monarchy. As such, the role and position of the monarch are governed by the Constitution of the Netherlands. Consequently, a large portion of it is devoted to the monarch. Roughly a third of ...

, the

King of Norway The Norwegian monarch is the head of state of Norway, which is a constitutional and hereditary monarchy with a parliamentary system. The Norwegian monarchy can trace its line back to the reign of Harald Fairhair and the previous petty kingd ...

and the

Emperor of Japan The Emperor of Japan is the monarch and the head of the Imperial Family of Japan. Under the Constitution of Japan, he is defined as the symbol of the Japanese state and the unity of the Japanese people, and his position is derived from "the ...

. "Carver of the Month: Ian G. Bennan,"
''Woodezine.'' Vol. II, No. VI. June 2004.

Order of the Garter

Over the course of decades, a number of newly created

crest Crest or CREST may refer to: Buildings *The Crest (Huntington, New York), a historic house in Suffolk County, New York *"The Crest", an alternate name for 63 Wall Street, in Manhattan, New York *Crest Castle (Château Du Crest), Jussy, Switzerla ...

s carved by Brennan have been positioned above the knights' choir stalls (seats) in St George's Chapel, including those of royals such as the

Duke of Cambridge Duke of Cambridge, one of several current royal dukedoms in the United Kingdom , is a hereditary title of specific rank of nobility in the British royal family. The title (named after the city of Cambridge in England) is heritable by male de ...

and prime ministers such as

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...

. The gilded chrysanthemum crest of

Emperor Akihito is a member of the Imperial House of Japan who reigned as the 125th emperor of Japan from 7 January 1989 until his abdication on 30 April 2019. He presided over the Heisei era, ''Heisei'' being an expression of achieving peace worldwide. Bo ...

represented a somewhat different artistic challenge than is normally posed by the conventions of European heraldry. Brennan has also been asked to replace some of the older carvings in the chapel which have become damaged or missing. Among the restored Garter crests are those of

King Frederick IX of Denmark Frederick IX ( da, Christian Frederik Franz Michael Carl Valdemar Georg; 11 March 1899 – 14 January 1972) was King of Denmark from 1947 to 1972. Born into the House of Glücksburg, Frederick was the elder son of King Christian X and Quee ...

, King Gustav VI Adolf of Sweden and Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia.

Order of the Bath

Brennan carved the crest for the Prince of Wales, Great Master of the Order of the Bath. Other crests created by Brennan for Knights of the Bath include those of Sir Douglas Lowe, Sir Neil Wheeler and Sir Anthony Griffin.

Other commissions

Brennan carved a life-size lion figurehead and he also worked on the scrollwork around the entrance port on the middle gun-deck of Lord Nelson's flagship which is currently in dry dock at Portsmouth's Royal Naval Dockyard. Today, HMS ''Victory'' serves as flagship of the United Kingdom's Second Sea Lord and the Royal Navy's Commander-in-Chief Naval Home Command. Brennan's sculptural work was part of an ongoing restoration and maintenance programme for the oldest commissioned warship in the world. Other marine sculptures includes the

Cunard Cunard () is a British shipping and cruise line based at Carnival House at Southampton, England, operated by Carnival UK and owned by Carnival Corporation & plc. Since 2011, Cunard and its three ships have been registered in Hamilton, Berm ...

crest displayed in the Grand Lobby of the ocean liner MS ''Queen Victoria''. A less successful work was his £102,000 sculpture of

Southampton FC Southampton Football Club () is an English professional football club based in Southampton, Hampshire, which competes in the . Their home ground since 2001 has been St Mary's Stadium, before which they were based at The Dell. The club play in ...

chairman Ted Bates. This was removed a week after unveiling, due to fans' complaints that it looked nothing like Bates.

References

"Carver of the Month: Ian G. Bennan,"
''Woodezine.'' Vol. II, No. VI. June 2004. * Kemp, Martin
"The lost art of public sculpture,"
''The Guardian'' (London). March 29, 2007. * Burkes-peerage : http://www.burkes-peerage.net/articles/roindex.aspx * Prince William's Royal Crest : Daily Telegraph

External links

* Ian Brennan
Artist's website

* BBC-Hampshire: ttps://www.bbc.co.uk/hampshire/content/articles/2007/03/20/ted_bates_statue_feature.shtml Southampton FC, Ted Bates' statue pulled
Brennan's carved full size master copy of the bronze crucifix statue

* Britain's only "Golden Tooth" dental sign (http://bedfordplacedentist.co.uk/about-us/the-golden-tooth-story/) {{DEFAULTSORT:Brennan, Ian 1950 births Living people British sculptors British male sculptors