•m'li'-'i'.'ii- ■ iil it' THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES I lAMIIKIlllIK : lllUr.IIION, liEI.I. AMI CO. A HISTORY OF RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND, 1^00-1800 Hv REGINALD BLOMFIELD, ma. EXETER COLLEGE, OXFORD, ARCHITECT. AUTHOR OF -THI': FORMAL GARDEN IN ENGLAND." WITH DRAWINGS BY THE AUTHOR AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS VOL. I LONDON GEORGE BELL AND SONS 1897 iHlsUItK PRESS :—CIIARI.lCS WHITTI.NOHAM AND CO. TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY I.ANE, LONDON. Art Librarv V.I PREFACE. In the following pages I have attempted to give a consecutive account of Renaissance architecture in England from its first experimental efforts, through its mature expression, to its ultimate decay. So far as my opportunities have allowed, I have endeavoured to make this survey complete ; but my object has been, not to present a catalogue raisonne of English architecture during these three hundred years, but to classify the immense amount of material included in this period, to show how one phase of its development followed inevitably from another, and to trace the intimate relation which from first to last binds toeether a series of historical facts which have been generally regarded as out of relation to each other. It has not been possible in such an endeavour to obtain absolute verification in every detail. Where I have been able to do so, I have verified by comparison with the actual building, but there still exists a great amount of documentary evidence in regard to private buildings which is not yet accessible, and which may possibly modify some of the statements as to details advanced in these pages. Neither, again, would it be possible within the limits of this book to mention every interesting building, domestic or otherwise, erected during the period. England is exceedingly rich in examples of Renaissance architecture, and I have confined my selection to those buildings which are of historical importance, or, in my opinion, best illustrate the main lines of development of English architecture from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. A word of explanation may be necessary in regard to the title " Renaissance Architecture." By the Renaissance is generally under- stood the Humanist Revival of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and the term has not been extended to its subsequent phases. Vet no other term exactly covers the ground in regard to architecture. The 1 29905 i? vi PREFACE term Classical is too wide in its application, for it would include Greek architecture and such modern architecture as has attempted to imitate it in this century. The term, moreover, might with equal propriety be applied to the monumental architecture of the Assyrians and Egyptians, and Classical is a term of wider significance, in so far as it expresses the fundamental distinction which underlies all art. as between Classical and Romantic. By Renaissance architecture is to be understood the art that derived its first impulse from the revived interest in scholarship at the end of the fifteenth centur)', — particularly in the remains of Roman architecture in Italy, — and which ran its course through successive and clearly traceable stages until the original inspiration was superseded bj- other motives. It is for this reason that I have begun my account with the first attempts by Italian workmen iii Flngland, and closed it at the end of the eighteenth century, when architects abandoned the models of Roman and Italian architecture, and applied themselves to the more or less literal revivalism of various other styles. I have, so far as possible, avoided controversial questions in the following pages. They are out of place in a history, which is less concerned with theories than with facts. Moreover, the point of view of students of architecture has changed. Forty years ago, architects, whose training should have given them a wider outlook, accepted with enthusiasm Mr. Ruskin's passionate advocacy of Gothic art, and his no less passionate condemnation of the art of the Renaissance. This attitude of mind has yielded to a more critical and intimate study of architecture. The dispute, as between Gothic and Classical architecture, is about as much out of date as the controversies of the schoolmen, and we have learnt to look upon both forms of architecture as expressions of the human intelligence, without regard to the ethical valuations intro- duced by the most intolerant and uncritical of amateurs. Both Gothic and Renaissance architecture — I should say both Romantic and Classical art — are admirable, but each within its own limits and in regard to its ultimate intention ; and it is unphilosophical to argue from one to the other, or, because one's personal predilection inclines to the one, to contend that the other is wholly damnable. There are certain con- siderations of fact which tend to show that the peculiar qualities of Gothic art are no longer attainable, the conditions from which they sprang no longer exist, Init though it has been necessary to point this PRKFACH vii out, I share to the lull the admiration which every intelligent artist must entertain for mediaeval architecture. The amateur and archso- logical Gothic of this century is, of course, another affair. I must express my obligations to the Warden and Fellows of All Souls' College, and the Provost and Fellows of Worcester College, Oxford, and to the Trustees of the Soane Museum, for permission to reproduce drawings by Wren, Inigo Jones, and others in their collections, also to Mr. Birch, the Curator of the Soane Museuin, Mr. Oman and Mr. Pottinp'er, Librarians of All Souls' and Worcester Colleges, for their courteous assistance. I have also to thank Mr. Gotch and Mr. Batsford for permission to reproduce four plates published in Mr. Gotch's " Architecture of the Renaissance in England," and Messrs. Belcher and Macartney and Mr. Batsford for the opportunity of seeing the photographs now being published by them in their "Later Renaissance Architecture in England," 1897, and for permis- sion to reproduce the view of Somerset House. The plates issued in both these publications are invaluable in illustration of the entire period covered in this history ; and I would particularly call the attention of the reader to Messrs. Belcher and Macartney's series as illustrating a period of English architecture little understood and im- perfectly appreciated, as yet, by the general public. I have also to thank Mr. Batsford for permission to reproduce the view of St. Paul's from Mr. Birch's "City Churches," and Messrs. Varney and Son of Buckingham, Mr. Ault of Aldbourne, Wilts, and other photographers for permission to make use of their work. The plans, of Christ Church, Spitalhelds, and the Club House at Eltham, Kent, have been prepared from measurements taken by Mr. P. Bauhof, and that 01 Groombridge from measurements by Mr. G. Streatfield. A list of the principal works consulted will be found at the beginning of the book. Nkw Court, Temple. CONTENTS OF VOL. I. CHAI'TKR PACE I. The Italians in England. Henry VIII. — Edward VI. . i II. The German.s in England. Elizabeth. James I. . . 25 III. The English Builders 42 IV. Sixteenth Century House Planning and Architectural Treatises 67 V. Inigo Jones 97 VI. John Webb, Marsh, and Gerkier : the last Survivals of Gothic 123 VII. Sir Chrlstopher Wren 149 I. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Wood Panel in Upper Gallery. The Vvne . Head from Frieze. East Barsiiam Terr.v-Cotta Plaque. Wolsey's Arms, Hampton Court Panel, Christc[iurcii, Hants. Wolsey, Campegciio, and C. rine of Arragon Screen to G.vrdiner's Chantry, Winchester . Chests on Screen to Choir, Winche.ster Panel over Door in Burgate Street, Canterbury Chimney-Piece, South Wraxhall A Gable at Knole The Triangular Lodge at Rusiiton Detail of Doorway to Triangular Lodge, Rushton . The Tower of the Schools, Oxford .... Gateway at Cobham College Porch at Weobley in Herefordshire .... Carving in Butcher's Row, Hereford .... The Grange, Leominster . . . . . The School and Almshouse, Corsham .... Plan of Buckhurst House in Sussex. (Soane Collection Audley End in Essex. (Soane Collection) . Plan of Holland House. (Soane Collection) Plan of the Fishing House at Meare .... Garden House at Amesbury ...'... Plan of Garden House at Amesbury Unnamed Plan in Soane Collection .... Thornton College, Sir Vincent Skynner's. Second St showing the Gallery. (Soane Collection) W^'mbledon (Soane Collection) » . Wollaton Hall. (Soane Collection) .... Plan and Elevation from Soane Collection Stairs, Wye College, Kent Staircase to House in Whitecross Street as exi.sting in Staircase at Hawkhurst, Kent Stairs, Christ's College, Cambridge A Design, by Inigo Jones, for the Scenery of a ^L\S(jue Ceiling, Wilton Door, Whitehall \THE- REY, 1 888 PAGE I 4 6 1 1 20 22 25 37 44 46 47 55 59 61 62 63 65 G8 71 73 75 77 7S 79 81 «3 S5 87 8y 91 93 95 lOI 105 107 Xll Lisr Uh' ILLUSTRATIONS Greenwich HosriTAi Eaves, Cornice, and Quoins, C'ramsorm; .... Porch, West Woodhav Capital to Porch, West Woodhav Panelling in Double Cuue Roo.m, Wilton Entrance Front, Ravniiam Parr, Xorkolk Sketch for Chi.mnev Piece, isv Inigo Jones . Entrance Pier, A.mesuukv DOOKWAV .\T THE VVNE, NEAR B.ASINGSTOKE, liV JOHN WEUI Stone Mantelpiece. The Vvne, near Basincjstoke Entrance Porch, Thorpe Ik\i.i The Stahles, Thorpe Hali Part oe a Design for a Ceiling at Greenwich, nv John \Vi;i;i Design for a Mantelpiece at Greenwich, rv John Wehu . South Porch of GROoMiiRiixn; Church, Kent, huii.t 1625 m William Ca.mfield. "Oh Imki.icissimum Caroi.i Pkixcipis kx HiSPANIS Redditum" Niche at West End of Petfrhouse Chapfl, C.\miiriik,e The Chapel, Lytes-Carv The Chapel, Burford Priorv, Oxfordshire . The Chapel, Brazenose, Oxford The Ashmolean Museu.m, Oxford Font, Christchurch, Newgate Street .... Interior of St. Stephen's, Walbrook .... St. Bride's St. Benet's, Upper Thames Street Font, St. Stephen's, Walbrook Chapel to Bishop's Palace, Wolvesev, Winchester Hampton Court, North-East Corner .... Detail of G.\tes, East Front of Hamptun Court The Entrance, Kensington Palace Groombridge Place in Kent Plan of Groombridge Place I'AGE I 1 I Hj 114 "S 119 121 124 125 126 127 129 ■3> ■3.5 35 39 41 43 45 51 57 59 63 65 71 74 75 77 79 83 84 LIST OF SEPARATE PLATES. Terra-Cotta Roundel, Hampton Court . . . To faa- page 2 The Palace of Nonesuch „ 16 Countess of Salisbury's Chantrv, Christchurch, Hants „ 18 Countess of Salisbury's Chantry, Christchurch. Details 20 LlSr Ol- ll.LUSl RATIONS xiu Ceiling of Bishop West's Chapel, Ely Gateway, Montacute House, Somerset The Royal Exchange, as built by Sik T. Gresha.m Doorway at Tenteruex, Kent From a Plate in Vriese's " Architectura" The Hertford Monument, Salisbury Cathedral St. John's College, Oxford, Gate of Gardens Sir T. Bodley's Monument, Merton College, Oxfori Chimney Piece, Cobham, Kent Barrington Court .... Knole, Sfvenoaks .... KiRBY, Xorthants .... AuDLEY End Bolsoyer Castle, the Terrace Oriel College, Oxford Screen, Abbey Dore Church, Herefordshire St. John's College, Cambridge Newel, Hatfield House . Whitehall. Part P2ley.\tion . The BaN(jueting House Details .... „ Ground Plan „ Plan of First PToor „ „ Second Floor Design FOR A Church (probably Sketch for St. Paul's Coyent Garden) .... St. Mary's Church, Oxford Somerset House. "Upright of V- Palace Old Somerset House. Details Design for a Ceiling (Countess of Carnaryon Bedchamber Chimney Piece, Wilton .... Wilton, Centre Bay of South P'ront . Stoke Park Kirby, Northants, Doorway and Balcon\ AsHDO\YN House, Berkshire St. John's Church, Leeds Trinity College Chapel, Oxford . Emmanuel College, Cambridge Wren's Plan for Re-building London [^Double plate) St. Paul's Cathedral. West Eleyation „ Lnterior (Wren's Drawing) {Double plate) To face page 20 )» 22 „ 34 „ 34 n 36 M 3« „ 38 ,, 38 ., 38 I) 40 ») 44 »» 46 t) 50 M 52 M 56 » 60 >• 60 )l 82 n 106 »» 106 )? 108 n 108 n loS » 1 10 » 1 10 n 1 12 n I \2 Tt 114 116 116 )l 116 »| 118 )> I30 n 120 n 130 )> 136 »> 152 » >.i4 ») 154-5 1) 166 1) 16S 168-170 .\IV LIST Ol- II.Ll'STRATIONS St. Paul's Catmedrai.. Plan (nearly as executed) . St. Paul's Cathedral. Wren's rejected Design, Section and Elevation Sr. 1'aul's C.vthedral. Rejected Plan and Wakkani Design 'rRi.xiTv College, Ca.mbridge. Neville's Court . „ „ „ The Lii'.rarv : Plan and Elevation by Wren Trinity College, Camuridge. Details of Liurarv Greenwich Hospital. Plan laid before the House OF Commons Greenwich Hospital. Elevation . » }i H ■ • Hampton Court Plan and Elevation in Wren's Drawings Design for a Monument .... To face page i68 170 170 174 176 176 180 182 182 184 186 186 AUTHORITIES CONSULTED. Adam, Rop.ert and James, Works of. London, 1778. Adam, Robert. Ruins of the Palace of the Emperor Diocletian at Spalatro. London, 1764. Adam.s, M. B. Examples of Old Enj^dish Houses. London, 1-s of Elizabeth and James I. London, 1865. Serlio. Five Books on Architecture: translated by Robert Peake. 161 1. Shaw, Henry, F.S.A. Details of Elizabethan Architecture. London, 1839. Shute, John. First and Chief Grounds of Architecture. 1563. Stevenson, J. J. House Architecture. Macmillan, 1880. Stony, John. A Survey of London, etc. ist edition. London, 1598. And A Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster, brought down from the year 1633 to the present time by J. .Strype. London, 1720. Taylor, Wm. Antiquities of King's Lj-nn. Lj-nn, 1844. Taylor. Old Halls in Cheshire. Manchester, 1884. TiJOU, John. A New Booke of Drawings Invented and Desincd b\- John Tijou. 1693. Reproduced by B. T Batsford, 1896. Transactions of the Royal Institute of British .Architects. Passiui. Vardv, John. Some Designs of Inigo Jones. Published by J. Vardy, 1744. Vetusta Monu.menta. London, 1747. VriesE. Perspective. 1559. — Fountains. 1568. — Architectura. 1577. AUTHORI'IIES CONSULTED xix Walpole, Horace. Anecdotes of Painting, etc. Ed. Wornum. Ware, Isa.\C. A Complete Body of Architecture. London, 1756. — The Four Books of Palladio's .Architecture. 1738. — Plans and L.levationsof Mou^^hton in Norfolk. London, 1735. — Designs of Inigo Jones : by I. W. 1757. Willis, R., and Clark, J. W. The .Architectural History of the University of Cambridge. Cambridge, 1886. Woon, AnthoN'V. Athen;e O.xoniensis. 2nd edition, 1721. { ist edition, 1691.) WOTTON, Sir Henry. Elements of Architecture. 1624. Wren, Chrlstopher (Son of Sir C). Parentalia. London, 1750. / tin ^ <*/u.<-H WOOD PAXEI. IN UPI'RR C.ALL]^R^'. THK VVXK. A HISTORY OF RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND 1 500 — 1 800. CHAPTER I. The Italians in England. Henry VHI. — Edward VI. FOR the purposes of this history the Renaissance in England will be taken to mean that fresh departure in architecture which began with the tentative efforts of imported workmen in the reign of Henrj' VIII., which reached its highest development in the hands of Inigo Jones and Wren, and eventually ran itself out in the uncertainties induced by the literary eclecticism of the end of the eighteenth century. The remarkable expansion of the English people in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and the strong conservative instinct of the race, constitute the two contending influences which struggled tor the mastery in this new movement, and finally united to give it a distinctly national 1? 2 RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND character. The two factors to be considered are, on the one hand, tlie constant importation of foreign ideas, and, on the other, the tenacious tradition of a people with a great historic past in architecture. From first to last the process of fusion and adjustment between these two elements occupied rather over lOO years, and it was the work of the oreatest architect this country has possessed, perhaps our one architect of quite commanding genius, to gather up the broken threads and weave them together into one splendid and harmonious architecture. For various reasons the Renaissance was slow to gain a permanent footing in England. Brunelleschi died in 1444, Alberti in 1472, forty years before the first Italian artist of importance had set foot in Eno-land, and both of these men had done work such as could not even have been conceived of in England till at least 150 years later. Of all the Northern peoples the English were the most tenacious of the past, the slowest to accept these foreign ways. Though com- mercial relations with the Italian States had existed since the thirteenth century, the influence of Italian intelligence was confined to the popula- tion of London and the principal seaport towns ; moreover, in the reign of Henry VTIL, the people, as opposed to the nobility, were poor, and evidently hampered by a certain old world inaccessibility to ideas. The consequence was that the first eftorts of the Renaissance in England were abortive, they merely glanced off the strong habit of tradition without affecting the organic structure, and in fact several false starts were made before native builders took up the running, and though they blundered egregiously, cleared the way for the abler men of the seventeenth century. Broadly speaking, there are four main divisions, four groups of facts to be considered in dealing with the development of architecture in England since the days of the Renaissance : (i) the various isolated attempts of foreign workmen, in nearly every case Italians, to introduce their own methods of workmanship; (2) the efforts of half-instructed native builders, and of Flemish and German workmen ; (3) the mature Palladianism introduced by Inigo Jones, a method so modified and adapted by his genius as to be the foundation of all subsequent architecture in England for the next 200 years. These three types are so distinct that there is, as a rule, little difficulty in distin- guishing instances. The third type is so clearly marked off from its predecessors, and so much more permanent in its results, that the first two can only be regarded as byways of history, interesting indeed, and pathetic as the efforts of men groping in the dark, but off the main fa.cf. 2. TERRA-COTTA ROUNDEL, HAMPTON COURT. THE ITALIANS IN ENGLAND 3 track of the Renaissance movement, and least of all to be taken as typical models of its methods. All three, however, bear on the history of the Renaissance in England, but besides, and outside these three groups, there are buildings which there is no reason to identify with Renaissance rather than with Gothic architecture, buildings which fairly represent the continuous building tradition of the country. This fourth group is illustrated by such houses as Lake House near Salisbury, and on a smaller scale by cottages in every part of the country, and ranging down to the beginning of the present century. Farm buildings, erected since iSoo, may yet be found in remote country districts, which show distinct traces of the mediaeval tradition. The first memorable introduction of foreign workmen into England was due to Henry VIII. and Wolsey. By an indenture dated Jan. 1 1, 1 5 15, Wolsey leased Hampton Court for ninety-nine years, and he at once set to work to transform it into a palace of unexampled magni- ficence. His architect is unknown. Mr. Law (to whose excellent history of Hampton Court I must refer the reader for a complete account of the buildings) inclines to think it might have been " Mr. Williams, a priest surveyor of the works." There were also on the works James Bettes, "master of the workes," and Nicholas Towneley, "clerk comptroller of workes." But it is probable that, as was the common custom, the general design was directed by Wolsey himself, and the work was carried out by workmen who contracted for each trade, and designed and executed their own details. Wolsey's work, probably the west front and the outer court, was more or less com- pleted by 1520. The fabric was built by Englishmen, but Italians were employed for some, at least, of the ornament. The terra-cotta busts of emperors over the entrance are now known to have been made by Giovanni de Majano, whose name appears in the state papers in all sorts of distorted forms, and to whom we shall have to return later. In the state papers of Henry VIII.' is a letter from Joannes de Majano to Wolsey, dated June 18, 1521, requesting payment of balance (^"21 i^s. 4.d.) for the ten medallions of terra-cotta (" rotundae imagines ex terra depictae") which he had supplied for the palace at " anton cort." The price was ^2 6s. S(/. a-piece, and three "histories" of Hercules at ^4 each. In January, 151 1, the king had paid ^10 for "an image of Hercules made of earth," and while the Italian influence lasted in England terra-cotta busts and figures seem to have been in demand ' Brewer, Calendar of State Papers, Henr) \"1II., 3. i. 1355. 4 RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND for the outside of buildinos the niches and hollow circles which are now empty having; probably been designed to receive these decorations. There is one instance of this on the entrance front of Cranborne in Dorsetshire, and a complete example of a bust surrounded by a double wreath of foliage at St. Donat's Castle in Glamorganshire; but the most perfect instance is undoubtedly the terra-cotta placjue of Wolsey's arms supi^orted by two amorini under a cardinal's hat, which is set on the wall above the gateway of the clock tower at Hampton Court. HEAD FROM FRIEZE. EAST BARSHAM. This is dated 1525. The most famous example of the use of terra- cotta for large figure work in England is the tomb of John Young, Master of the Rolls, in the Rolls Chapel. This was executed by Torrigiano in 1516, and consists of a recumbent figure on a sarcophagus under an arch, with a figure of Christ and two angels at the back. Though the modelling of the Christ is rather coarse, and the colour truculent, the design as a whole is very fine. Under the stimulus thus given, ornamental terra-cotta came into use in England for about forty years, 1500 to 1540. Terra-cotta as a building material is only a species of brickwork burnt extremely hard THE ITALIANS IN ENGl,ANI) 5 and moulded, and in this form, as D\ghy Wyatt points out, it had been in use in England before the Italians came, particularly along the east coast. It is by no means clear, however, that it was used except in a very rudimentary way. At East Barsham, where terra-cotta is used with great freedom and complete mastery of the material, there is distinct evidence in the detail that the artist had some acquaintance with Italian art. The greater part of the detail is ordinary Perpendicular, but inter- spersed with it are little plaques cast from a mould, with heads of a man and woman alternately. They measure about 10 in. by 8 in., and are unmistakably Italian. This influence is even more marked in Great Snoring Rectory about three miles distant. Here the upper frieze is formed by a series of heads divided by balusters, which are ornamented with acanthus leaves and surmounted by small heads. Both East Barsham Manor House and Great Snoring Rectory date from the end of the fifteenth or very early part of the sixteenth century, and it seems probable that the English workmen were ver}- much helped by the Italians in their manipulation of terra-cotta, or that the work was actually cast by Italians to English directions. The Italians who were familiar with the work of the Delia Robbias introduced " terra-cotta invetriata, that is terra-cotta covered with a stanniferous glaze, and susceptible of receiving colour at \vill," though here again they found in the rough green ' encaustic tiles of the country a crude anticipation of their own glazed and coloured terra-cotta. The ruined house of Layer Marney in Essex, begun in 1500 and left unfinished in 1525, is a well- known example of the use of terra-cotta detail. Other instances are Sutton Place in Surrey, built between 1 521-1527, the tomb of Lord Henry Marney at Layer Marney, 1525, and the tomb of one of the Earls of Arundel in the Fitz-Alan Chapel at Arundel. After the Italians left Eno-land the use of terra-cotta ornamentation died out almost entirely. It was still used in the seventeenth century for copings, as at Abbot's Hospital, Guildford, and for pierced balustrades and similar details, as at Hatfield, but I do not think any instances exist of its use in the elaborate manner practised by the Italians alter the end of the sixteenth century. With good reason, the sound taste of the English rejected it as harsh and discordant with the beautiful texture of their brickwork. The charm of the work at East Barsham is due to its disintegration ; — where it remains in its original state and unimpaired ' Green glazed earthenware pots were in use in the Inns of Court in the si.xteenth centuf)', the clay from which they were made being dug in Farnham Park. Sic- JNIr. Inderwick's introduction to the "Collection of Inner Temple Records,' pp. Ixxxvi-lwxvii. 6 RENAISSANCE ARCnrn-CTURE IN ENGLAND by the weather, it is quite as unpleasantly hard as modern work. More- over, as its manufacture must always be mechanical, no alteration could ^/^ TERKA-COTTA PLAQUE. WOI.SEV S ARMS, HA^n'^O^I COURT. be made in it, no slip of the chisel could be converted into some happy fancy. Notliing more was heard of terra-cotta in tliis country as a THE ITALIANS IN ENGLAND 7 building material until it was revived as a commercial speculation in the latter half of this century. There is no record of the names of other Italians employed by Wolsey at Hampton Court, but there is further evidence of their handiwork in the ceiling of Cardinal Wolsey's closet, and Mr. Law suggests that the paintings in this room below the frieze may have been by Luca Penni or Toto del Nunziata, Italians subsequently in the service of Henry VIII. Wolsey was a munificent patron of art, and had all that keen enjoyment of beauty characteristic of the most gifted minds of the Renaissance, for the great statesmen and scholars of the Renaissance were men of all-round attainment — their whole life was in scale, at every point it was touched by some ray of genius, and Wolsey, magnificent in his statesmanship, loved to surround himself with beautiful works of art, carpets from the East, and sumptuous hangings, and was by no means scrupulous as to the steps he took to gratify this desire. He did not hesitate to use his position as a means of extracting from the Venetian senate si.xty fine Damascene carpets for his palace in 1521,' and Sir Richard Gresham in 1522 bought for liim twenty-one complete sets of tapestry in a hundred and thirty-two pieces, with various scriptural subjects, and classical and other pieces, such as Hercules and Jason, Dame Pleasaunce, the " Storye of L'Amante or the Romaunte of the Rose " ; many of these tapestries had borders specially designed for the Cardinal.- Their titles alone suggest the strange mixture of ideas, characteristic of Tudor England, its curious interest in the New Learning, side by side with its invincible affection for the fancies of medicevalism. Again and again the spirit of the old world and the new assert themselves side by side, in the work of this time, at first without conflict and yet without fusion, much in the manner of two different types of beauty, each setting oft" the other, unlike but yet in harmony. Wolsey's subtle and highly-cultivated intelligence was quick to assimilate this feeling, and his enormous wealth and com- manding position enabled him to realize his dreams in the magnificent patronage of the best artificers of his time. In this, however, he was far outdone by the king. Henry VIII. inherited a vast accumulation of money from his parsimonious father,^ ' Law, i. 71. ^ Wolsey's wealth was enormous. In 1527 the Venetian ambassador estimated his plate to be worth 300,000 gold ducats, which Mr. Law puts at one and a half million sterling. '' Sebastian (liustiniani, in a report to the \'enetian senate, dated September lotii, 1 5 19, gives the following particulars of Henry's resource.s. His father left him ten millions 8 RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND and nothing- less than tlicsc resources could have met his prodigal ex- penditure on dress, uniforms, and goldsmiths' work, and the large staft'of foreign artists more or less permanently in his pay. In the king's book of payments there are constant entries of payments to Italians and others for costly stuffs. Thus, in i 5 1 3, Amadas and Mortimer, " the brawderer," were paid ^887 8s. 6d. for gold and silver stuff, and _^2,ooo for horse harness and trappings of goldsmith's work. In 15 14 Amadas is paid /^i,9o6 85-. 4^/. for goldsmith's work. These instances are sufficient to show the scale of Henry's expenses in simple ornament, and besides these there are constant entries of pensions to artists and musicians, and of payments for work done. The most famous of these artists was Torrigiano, or Peter Torrysany as the English used to call him. His career in England was as chequered as all the other episodes in the life of this furious artist. He came to England in the company of some Florentine merchants before 15 12. The tomb to John Young, 15 16, in the Rolls Chapel (now destroyed), was his first completed work in England,' but while making this he must also have been employed on the tomb of Henry VH. in Westminster Abbey, the indenture for which is dated October 26th, 15 12. The indenture bound Torrigiano to of ready money in gold, of which he spent half on his three armies when at war with France. His revenues amounted to about 350,000 ducats per annum, derived from the following sources : estates, forests and meres, customs, hereditary and confiscated properties, the duchies of Lancaster, York, Cornwall, and Suffolk, the county palatine of Chester, the principality of Wales, e.Kport duties, the wool staple, the great seal, annats of Church benefices, court of wards, and new year's gifts, from which the king received much more than he gave. To this must be added the farming out of exchanges and the like. Thus, in 1508, Peter Corsey, of Florence, was appointed warden of exchange in England on paying to the king ;^240 a year. Giustiniani reckoned his annual expenses at 100,000 ducats. Wolsey's income he put at 42,000 ducats, the Duke of Buckingham's at 30,000, the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk at 12,000 each. Henry was a large creditor with the Florentine merchants, who sometimes owed him as much as 300,000 ducats. This explains his payment of Torrigiano and others by bonds and drafts on Italian merchants. The value of the ducat between 1442 and 1512 is put by Mr. Rawdon Browne as varying between yyi r .K :i«f;-;k#* :u rb:^ >VgSi. DOORWAY TO GARDENS, ST. JOHN'S, OXFORD. Face p. 38. 1l If > ' It- -?*» /■*-^/. 3S. MONUMENT OF SIR THOMAS BODLEY, MERTON COLLEGE CHAPEL, OXFORD. BY NICHOLAS STONE. Face p. 38. CHIMNEY-PIECE, COBHAM, KENT. THE GERMANS IN ENGLAND 39 three at the ends, by small detached Ionic cohimns, supporting a slab of black marble, on which lie the figures of Lord Cobham and his wife. Smaller figures of their ten sons and four daughters occupy the bays at the sides and ends. The peculiarity of this monument is its lavish use of niello. The whole of it, except the black marble slab, is of alabaster, and the armour of the figures and all the armorial bearings, have their surfaces graved out and filled in flush with a composition of wax and mastic, coloured red, black, yellow and other colours. This was rubbed down smooth to the adjacent surfaces, and though it has blistered here and there, the face is still very hard and firm, and the colour permanent. Lord Cobham died in 1561. In the Groote Kirk of Nymegen there is a splendid monument to Catherine of Bourbon (died 1469), executed in a similar method, and the Cobham tomb was no doubt made by a Fleming. Towards the end of the sixteenth century, a certain Giles de Whitt ' was employed by Henry, Lord Cobham, on chimney-pieces in the Hall, and on a tomb to Lord Cobham's father. It is possible that we have in De Whitt the artist who made this admirable monument. Bernard Jansen, a Fleming, is said to have been employed at Audley End and at Northumberland House. He certainly worked with Nicholas Stone on Sutton's monument in the old Charterhouse Chapel, probably supplying the architectural details while Stone did the figures. The last of these foreign designers, whose work was based on German models, was probably De Caux, a Gascon, and drawing- master to Prince Henry. De Caux did a good deal of work till superseded by Inigo Jones. He built a picture gallery for Prince Henry at Richmond, and laid out the gardens at Wilton as appears from his book of folio designs, published in 161 5, and certainly had something to do with the buildings, but what he actually did is obscure. Aubrey, who is not always to be trusted, states that De Caux designed the south front of the house " al Italiano" about 1635, "with the advice and approbation of Mr. Jones." This front was burnt down soon afterwards and rebuilt from Inigo Jones's designs under the superintend- ence of John Webb. Of De Caux's work at Wilton all that remains are the niches on either side of the archway on the east side - which used to form the main entrance, and possibly a clumsy garden-house of stone. The niches are meanly designed, and instead of being "al ' State Papers, Elizabeth, Dom., vol. cclxxvi., No. 37. quoted hv Mr. Cotrh. That is, on the side facing towards Salisbury. 40 RENAISSANCE ARCI I ITECTU RH IN ENGLAND I taliano " are very clearly in the German manner. De Caiix was also employed at Heidelberg. Aubrey says he died about 1656. The inducncc of German art in England had run itself out nearly twenty years before. The effect on E.nglish architecture was greater for the time than that of the Italians, but it was less permanent in its results. German motives were freely adopted by English builders in regard to the elevations and architectural details of important buildings. Their crudeness and the mechanical method of their ornamentation made these motives peculiarly easy to reproduce in large quantity at an inconsiderable cost. They were accordingly taken up for much the same reasons as those which have led to their repetition in the last few years. In consequence of this, for one piece of ornament that can be traced to an Italian motive, there are twenty that are clearly due to German influence, in Elizabethan and early Jacobean buildings. That this influence, however, had not sunk very deeply into the minds of the English is evident from the ease with which Inigo Jones threw it overboard, and it did not reappear again in England so long as the development of architecture was spontaneous, and traditional, and though not unconscious, was not the result of deliberate eclecticism. Moreover, the earlier Italian influence was not wasted. Houses were built in England by gentlemen of less degree, but superior taste, which in the main adhered to the traditions of English house building, and in their ornamentation deliberately followed Italian models. The beautiful panel above the entrance porch to Montacute House (1580- 1600), Sir Thomas Tresham's buildings in Northamptonshire (1575-80), the details of the entrance garden door to Shaw House near Newbury (1571), show no trace of the Germans at all; and indeed, the refine- ment of details, the all-pervading simplicity and reserve of such a design as the entrance front of Montacute, or Harrington in Somerset- shire, are plain evidence that the saner traditions of English building were not materially affected by the eccentric German. The elevations of Litdecote (about 15S0), with its sober brick front running up unin- terrupted to the great eaves course, and its multitudinous gables on the garden side are absolutely and solely English. They might, indeed, have been built a hundred years earlier, and, as will be pointed out, the essential parts of the English house, its plan, and the blocking out of the building, were as yet not modified at all by either Italians or Germans. The traditional English house plan, attained by slow development through successive phases of civilization, held its own alike in the palace and the manor house, in spite of the fantastic foreign sc^ C'^ H as S o u z o a; < THE GERMANS IN ENGLAND 41 dress, with which the builder's ambition clothed it. Tlie real and essential change in EnoHsh archit(jcture, the change which altered not merely its detail, but its whole intention in building, is not to be found in these experiments of the sixteenth century, but in the far-reaching revolution introduced by Inigo Jones, the first Englishman to grasp in its full significance the art of the Italian Renaissance. CHAPTER III. The English Builders. Of the English master builders themselves, of the men, that is, who were not quite what we now understand by builders, and still less, what we understand by architects, very little is known. The name most frequently referred to is that of John Thorpe, yet, for any certain knowledge about him, John Thorpe is not very far removed from that other ignis fatiiiis of archaeology, John of Padua. The history of his life is almost entirely conjectural, and is based on the miscellaneous collection of drawings now in the Soane Museum, and if, as was at one time asserted, John Thorpe was really the architect of all the buildings included in that collection, it is almost incredible that a man who must in that case have been widely known at the time should, so far as is known, be referred to only once in contemporary literature. The collection comprises some two hundred and eighty sheets, consisting mainly of plans of various houses, a few full-sized sections of stone- work, a few elevations, a sheet of the five orders, and a diagram of perspective, with IMS. directions for making perspective drawings. As these drawings contain the whole of the material available for any account of John Thorpe, it is necessary to consider them in some detail. The plans include several of the most notable houses built in Elizabeth's reign. Somerset House, Buckhurst in Sussex, Copthall, Wollaton Notts, Burghley juxta Stamford, and Burghley-on-the-Hill, Sir Walter Cope's house at Kensington [that is Holland House], a great house at Wimbledon for Sir T. Cecil, Longford Castle, Holdenby, Audley End, "Ampthill old house enlardged by J. Thorpe," " Kerby whereof I laid the first stone 1570," Loseley in Surrey, Aston Hall Birmingham, and other less famous houses. There are various reasons which make it improbable that Thorpe had anything to do with any but a few of these houses. In the first place, as already mentioned, if Thorpe really designed all these buildings, he must have been better known, whereas his name was first mentioned by Horace Walpole, who saw this collection of drawings when it belonged to the THE ENGLISH BUILDERS 43 Earl of Warwick, and without further inquiry, jumped to the conclusion that he had found in Thorpe the architect of all the great Elizabethan houses. In the second place, so far as has at present been ascertained, in no case where documentary evidence, apart from drawings, exists in regard to the building of the house, does Thorpe's name occur. Thirdly, very few of the drawings are signed, and there are wide differences of writing and draughtsmanship in the various drawings of the collection. Lastly, there is the internal evidence of Thorpe's own manner, in so far as it can be gathered from the few drawings in the collection which can be assigned to him with any certainty. If, for instance, Thorpe designed Kirby in Northamptonshire, it is most improbable that he also designed a house of such a very different kind as Wollaton — for though it is easy nowadays for a designer to imitate any quantity of styles, at the end of the seventeenth century neither the necessary knowledge nor the inclina- tion existed for such e.xtreme versatility of design. Buckhurst in Sussex, an immense house which was finished in 1568, and is now entirely destroyed, may or may not have been designed by Thorpe. Buckhurst was built by Sir Richard Sackville, who after- wards, as Earl of Dorset, carried out extensive alterations and additions at Knole between 1603 and 1605, the dates on the rainwater heads. The gables and treatment of the south side of the inner court at Knole rather resemble an undoubted design of Thorpe's, and it is possible that he may have had something to do with both these buildings. Mr. Gotch ' has, I think, established the probability that Thorpe designed the plan of the original house at Kirby in Northamptonshire (not Kirby House, London, as stated by Dallaway). This house was built between 1570 and 1575 for Sir Humphrey Stafford, and on his death it was sold to Sir Christopher Hatton. The plan in the Soane Museum varies considerably in detail from the plan as actually executed ; for instance, a spacious loggia with a colonnade in nineteen bays is shown in Thorpe's plan running along the west side. This was never built. A somewhat similar loggia on a very much smaller scale was afterwards carried out at Holland House. Then, again, Thorpe's plan is rectangular, whereas the actual plan is irregular, but the general resemblance between the two is unmistakable, and so far is valuable as enabling us to form some sort of conjecture as to the kind of work which Thorpe actually did. Holdenby in Northamptonshire, built for Sir Christopher Hatton " Architecture of the Renaissance in England," an in\aluable series of views uf build- ings erected between 1560 and 1630. 44 Rl'lXAlSSANCE ARCllITKCTURK IN ENGLAND before 1580, is, with the exception of part of the front, destroyed. The only reason for assigning it to Thorpe is that there is a plan and elevation of it in the Soane IMuseuin, but the research of the late Mr. VVyatt Papworth has proved that Thorpe only surveyed this building after it was huilt. Mr. Papworth found an entry in the State Papers, A G.^BLE .\T KNOLE. June 4, 1606, of payment to John Thorpe " for his charges in taking the survey of the house and land by plots (.'' plans) at Holdenby, with the several rates and values of both, particularly with his own pains, and three others a long time employed in drawing down and writing fair the plots of that and of Ampthill House and the Earl of Salisbury's . . . ^70 Ss. Sd." Devon Issues, "Pell Records," James I., 1836, p. 2,7- ^ ^ \ o z THE ENGLISH BUILDERS 45 The words " enlardged by J. Thorpe," on the plan in the Soane Collec- tion, therefore probably mean, drawn to a larger scale by J. Thorpe. Confining ourselves to work which has been assigned to him on some reasonable authority, we are reduced to the Lyveden new building, erected before the end of the sixteenth century on a very curious plan, Longford Castle, some unknown work at Paris, the earlier part of Holland House, and another freak of design, the monogram house made on the plan fl" and explained by a rhyme, " Thes 2 letters | & T Joyned together as you see. is meant for a dwelling house for me." This plan is accompanied by a perspective elevation of the house, which is of an unpretentious character, three storeys and an attic, with octagon buttresses at the angles, such as are common in the plainer sixteenth century houses, and simple gables not unlike those at Knole. The whole rather resembles a brick house at Wrotham, in Kent, and many of the smaller brick houses of about this date. This design, the plan of Kirby, the drawings for Sir Walter Cope's house, the house for the Queen Mother at Paris, and the plan of Ampthill, are the only drawings in the whole collection which can be assigned to Thorpe with any degree of certainty, and as such, throw some light on the authenticity of other buildings which have been attributed to him — assuming, that is, that Thorpe was an architect — for the weight of such little evidence as there is, points to the conclusion that he was not a designer, but a surveyor and a draughtsman, a man whose profession it was to measure up and place on record plans of buildings after they had been completely finished by other men. Lyveden new building is still standing, though dismantled. It is a two-storey building, at the level of the first floor runs an entablature, in the frieze of which are triglyphs with emblematic symbols carved in the metopes, and round the frieze of the upper entablature runs an inscription. The profile of the mouldings and all the details are executed with much refinement. Now a plan very similar to the plan of this house exists in the Soane collection, and Mr. Gotch thence infers that Thorpe was the architect of this house, and that Sir Thomas Tresham, who built it, also employed Thorpe for the Rothwell market house, now dismantled, for the triansjular lodee at Rushton, and for Rushton Manor. The first two of these are almost certainly by the same hand, but whether that hand was Thorpe's is by no means certain. The delicacy and reserve 46 RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN ENGEAND of the designs of the Lyvcilen and Rdilnvcll huikhngs are entirely wantino- in the picturesque and exuberant but rather ignorant work of r < ,,,t^-:faK#^;^^ ^ ( V(C^^^ „<.*. 'li-v« >a/^ cvtA*<, ^vw|- STAIRS, WNF, CdllKia-:, KK.NI. orders, accordinsr to Dietterlin's notion of them, with a good deal ol bizarre and heterogeneous ornament. The designs are freely drawn, but 90 KI'IXAISS.WCI". AKCIII riiCTURI' 1\ KNGLAXD none of them show any refinement, and the majority are extraordinarily ugly. Their relation to what is usually called Elizabethan work is clear. Most of the ornamentation of buildings erected between 1550 and 1610 was borrowed directly from the illustrations to these publica- tions, though here and there may be found details of much refinement, evidently based on Italian examples. Fortunately this German fashion was abandoned as easily as it was assumed ; and the value of Peake's translation was that it put within the reach of English designers some account of Italian architecture, drawn direct from the fountain head, and not filtered through the impurities of German taste. In 161 5 Walter Gidde published his " Booke of Sundry draughts,"' "principally serving for Glasiers and not impertinent for Plasterers and Gardeners, besides .Sundr)- otlu.T professions." This book was reprinted by Henry Shaw in 1848. It is practically a pattern book of designs for glazing, and a builder's price book, "giving choice to the Builder, both for price and draught of work, which by no understanding can the Glasyer so securelj- demonstrate his feat as by having his examples of Draught," and so on, for Gidde, having got into a sentence, finds very great difficulty in getting out of it. Bacon's essay is too well known to need description. Scarcely inferior in literary charm, and far more valuable in its sound sense and practical insight into the subject is " The Elements of Architecture, collected by Henry Wotton, Knight, from the best authors and examples," published in 1624. This is not a mere precis of Vitruvius, but an attempt by an amateur of much experience to set down concisely the result of his reading and observations on architecture in Italy. Wotton never affects to be an authority on the subject. He calls himself a "speculative writer," and "a plain Kentishman ;" details " must be committed to the sagacity of the architect ; " and all he offers is " the wisdom of the ancients, with such reasonable notes of his own as are likely to help his fellows and countrymen." Wotton's work, however, is truly original. He classifies his subject with precision, and, though fully alive to the necessity for scholarship in architecture, he never lost sight of the basis of architecture in reasonable building. His robust common sense declined to be daunted by the pedantry of pro- fessors, " as if the very terms of architraves and friezes and cornices, and the like, were enough to graduate a master of this art." The book begins with a statement of the object of architecture, namely, " to build well, both for commoditie, firmness, and Delight." The site must be chosen with care and reason, and in the placing of the parts, use is to be followed. Tims, " the Principle chambers of Delight, all studies and SIXTEENTH CENTURY HOUSE PLANNING 91 Libraries" should face east, " for the morning is a friend to the Muses." Offices which require warmth (in which, by a curious sUp, he includes STAIRCASE TO HOUSF. IX WHITECROSS STREET AS EXISTINC. IX 18S8. the kitchen) should face south ; those which have to be cool, north. In regard to actual building, the two points to be considered are— first, the materials ; secondly, their use. The knowledge of materials is very 92 RENAISSANCE ARCl 1 riEC'll! KIC IN ENGLAND necessary, but Wotton, having in his consciousness the Italians, wlu) were scholars first and architects afterwards, inclines to think that this knowledge is rather the business of the ""officinator," or clerk of the works. As to the form or disposition of materials, circular plans should be avoided, "as of all most chargeable" and "fanciful figures, such as pentagons, and the like, do more aim at rarity than conunoditie" (a sly hit at Sir Thomas Tresham). Enormous heights of six or seven storeys are on no account to be allowed. Entering into detail, Wotton then deals in order with foundations, walls, openings, compartition {plan and elevation), and roofs. For foundations he quotes Vitruvius, the practice of the Italians, rules of Philibert de I'Orme, and Palladio's rule that they should be carried down one-sixth of the total height of the building. Under the head of walls he includes piers or pillars, which gives him occasion for a general discourse on the five orders and their usual proportions. He condemns " licentious inventions of wreathed and vined and figured columns," and " the practice, grown too familiar, of making pillars swell in the middle as if they were sick of some Tympanie or Dropsie." The entasis to which Wotton refers was often used at the time in complete ignorance of its true intention; and, in fact, owing to a misunderstanding of Alberti's, there was some authority for its misuse even among the Italians ; but if Wotton had been familiar with Greek architecture he would hardly have written so disrespectfully of this most delicate refinement of abstract form. Though eifted with sound sense and considerable power of observation, Wotton was quite uncritical in regard to history. For instance, in his next section, dealing with arches, he says that three-centred or four-centred arches " ought to be exiled from judicious eyes, and left to their first inventors, the Goths or Lombards, among other reliques of that barbarous age." In point of fact the four-centred arch had only come into use about 150 years before Wotton wrote. As to openings, notes from Alberti and Vitruvius are given on doors and windows, and some "vulgar cautions" in regard to staircases, as that they should have liberal light, plenty of headway, half paces at comfortable intervals, and a fair width— say 10 feet — the treads to be 12 to 18 inches wide, with 6-inch risers. Chimneys and drains are classified under openings. Some practical remarks as to smoky chimneys are quoted from De I'Orme, and it is suggested that drains should be put in the lowest part of the foundations, with secret shafts in the walls for ventilation, "to the wild air aloft." Wotton's remarks on "compartition," that is planning, are interest- ing, in view of the change which was shortly to be introduced from STAIRCASE AT HA\\KlirRsr, KI.Nl. 94 RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND Italy into the system of English house-planning. He describes the Italian plan of collecting the offices in a basement, with the principal rooms on the floors above, and further of arranging the rooms en suite. He points out several disadvantages of this, as, for instance, that the butteries and kitchen would be too far removed from the dining place, the rooms would be draughty, and there would be very little accommo- dation for guests. Dealing with " lodging chambers," he takes leave to reproach a fashion prevalent in Italy, namely, " that they so cast their partitions as when all doors were open a man may see through the whole house, which doth necessarily put an intolerable servitude upon all the chambers save the inmost, where none can arrive but through the rest." Notwithstanding Wotton's protest, the very plan which he condemns "as unsuitable to the natural hospitality of England," became the established practice within a few years of his death. There is much good sense in Wotton's criticism, but it is evident that, though fully sensible of the beauty of Italian architecture, he regarded it merely as an affair of detail, to be plastered on to the traditional plan, where a fine porch or a showy facade were considered desirable. i''rom insufficient acquaintance with the practical conditions of architecture, he did not know that a given plan necessitates a particular treatment. Inigo Jones was the first English architect to realize that, if justice was to be done to Italian architecture, plan and elevation must go together as a homogeneous whole. A few remarks on roof coverings complete the first part of Wotton's treatise. The second part deals briefiy, but shrewdly, with the ornaments within and without the building, painting and sculpture, and their allied arts, mosaic, and plaster work. Wotton would admit no painting outside, except in black and white, and figures at least 9 or lo feet high. He seems to have had a wholesome fear of the \-agaries of the decorator, and intended his limitations to be more or less prohibitive. As to "grotesques" or " antique work," he would confine "such medley and motley designs" to friezes and borders. For internal decorations, he still contemplated pictures rather than frescoes, and offers as rules: (i) That no room be furnished with too many ; (2) that rooms lighted at both ends, or double-lighted, are bad for pictures ; (3) that the point of sight intended by the painter should be considered; (4) that pictures be arranged in rooms according to their subject. Sculpture should be used with reserve and regard to its position. In regard to proportion in general, Wotton adds, " Let me only note this, that the least error or offence that can be committed ao-ainst sight is excess of height, yet that fault is nowhere of small SIXTEENTH CENTTRY HOUSE PLANNING 95 importance, because it is the greatest offence against the purse." Wotton was the first English writer to attempt a practical manual of architecture ; and, on the whole, and within his very limited scope, he succeeded better in his attempt than any subsequent writer. The S'lAlK-^, t'HRIM ^ ( (ll.l.l-.l.h-. (_ \MI!Klln,l:. writers of the Restoration tended to become entirely academical, without the redeeming humour and penetration of this plainspoken, keen-witted Englishman.' ' For the convenience of the reader I give the dates of tlie principal architectural treatises published in Italy before the time of Inigo Jones. 96 RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND Editions of Vitruvius, Latin Text. " Editio princeps," Rome, about i486, printed by Cieorge Herolt undor the supervision of John Sulpitius. Second edition, 1496. Next edition, Florence, 1496, with a '" pancpistcmon " and an essay entitled " Lamia," by Politian. Next edition, Venice, 1497. Jocundus' edition, Venice, 1511, the first with wood- cuts. Small edition of the same, called the Oiunta edition, 1513 ; and reprint of same at Florence, 1522. Translations and Commentaries on \'itruvius. l-'irst translation by Cresar Cffisarianus, Como, 1521, with plates. 1544, Philander's notes, published at Rome. The 1-yons edition of 1552 was brought out under Philander's own directions ; the edition of 1586 has good but rather florid illus- trations. Daniel Barbaro's Commentaries, published at Venice, 1567, with excellent woodcuts. Barbaro was Venetian Ambassador to England, 1 548-1 550. Fresh editions were published in 1584, 1629, and 1641. Vitruvius was also translated by Jan Martin, Paris, 1547, by Rivius, Nuremberg, 1548, and into Spanish, 1602. A list of subsequent editions of \'itruvius will be found in Gwilt's translation. Othkr Treatises. Alberti's " Architettura," Florence, 1485. Seb. Serlio, "Architettura," Venice and Bologna, 1540; Paris, 1545 ; London, 1611. "Perspectiva," 1547. Antonio L'ibacco, " Apiiartenente all' architettura," etc., Rome, 1552. Pietro Cataneo, "i quattro primo libri d'architettura,"' etc., \'enice, 1554. Vignola, " Le due Regole delli A', ordini d'architettura," Siena, 1563. A. Palladio, "i quattro libri dell' Architettura,'' \'enicc, 1570 : Paris, 1642 ; London, 1663. Lomazzo, "Trattato, dell' arte, della Pittura, scultura, e architettura," etc., Milan, 1588. Scamozzi, "L'idea dell' architettura Universale," A'enice, 1615. French Writers. Philander, "Notes on \itruvius," Lyons, 1552. (See above.) Jean Cousin, "Perspective," Paris, 1560. Philibert de I'Orme, " Nouvelles inventions," Paris, 1561. " Le Premier Tome de I'architecture," Paris, 1568. Jean Bullant, " Regie Gene'rale d'architecture," 1564. Jacques Androuet de Cerceau, " Desplus excellens Bastiments," Paris, 1576 and 1579. Tulien Mauclerc, " Le premier Livre d'architecture, " Rochelle, 1600. CHAPTER V. Inigo Jones. Inigo Jones was born on July 15th, 1573, in the parish of St. Bartholo- mew's, Sniithfield. His father, also named Inigo Jones, was a cloth- worker, and though his name does not occur in the Freedom Book of the Clothworkers' Company, I\Ir. Home' suspects that the name Hugo Jones, entered in 1569, is probably a clerical error for Inigo. The father was not in very prosperous circumstances, as appears not only from his suit in the Court of Requests, 1589, in regard to the repay- ment of a loan, but more especially from his will, dated 1596, whereby he left to his son Inigo, and his three daughters, Joane, Judith, and Mary, "all the debtes, Billes, Bondes, and Bookes that I leave in wrytinge to receave and to paye my debtes so farre forth as they maie be receaved." It would seem from this that he left little or no ready money to his children, and no light is thrown on the education of his son, and it is not known by what means he was enabled to travel and to reside in Italy, as he certainly did between the date of his father's death and the year 1604. Little in fact is known of the first thirty years of Inigo Jones's life. The anonymous memoir prefixed to "the Most Notable antiquity of Great Britain, vulgarly called Stonehenge," etc., 1735, states that he was "early distinguished by his inclination to drawing and design, and w'as particularly taken notice of for his skill in the practice of landscape painting." There is a picture attributed to him at Chiswick, a classical landscape, not unlike a Caspar Poussin, which shows some feeling for style, and a considerable mastery of the brush, and among the drawings at Chiswick there are some vigorous pen-and-ink sketches of landscapes drawn for the scenery of masques. These, however, he more probably made during his second journey to Italy ; and the only clue to his early trainingisatradition which Vertueheard from Dr. Harwood, who received ' I am indebted to Mr. Herbert Home for several particulars, hitherto unpublished in regard to the life of Inigo Jones. O 98 RENAISSANCI-: ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND it of Sir Christopher Wren, th.it Iniyo Jones was apprenticed to a joiner in St. Paul's Churchyard, a tradition wliich is supported by Ben Jonson's allusions to his humble antecedents : "And he nani'd me In-and-Inn Medlay: which serves A joiner's craft, because that we do la)- Things in and in, in our work. But I am truly Architectonicus Professor rather.: That is, as one would zay, an architect." — Tale of a Tub, Act IV., Scene i. Towards the end of the si.\teenth century he paid his first visit to Italy. The first paragraph of his " Stonehenge Restored" (1655) opens with th(> words " Being naturally inclined in ni)- younger years to study the arts of design, I passed into foreign parts to converse with the great masters thereof in Italy." The anonymous memoir says that " he travelled over Italy and the politer parts of Europe," at the expense of William, Earl of Pembroke, Sir Christopher Wren says, of the Earl of Arundel. Both these noblemen employed him on his second journey, but their connection with the first is uncertain. In the " Vindication of Stonehenge Restored" (1665) Webb states, that " Christianus IV., King of Denmark, first engrossed him to himself, sending for him out of Italy, where, especially at Venice, he had many years resided ;" and there is a tradition that while in the service of the Danish Court, he designed several important buildings, such as the Castle of Fredericks- borg, the Rosenberg Palace, and the Bourse at Copenhagen. There are, however, several suspicious points about this story. Andersen Feldborg ' ascribed the design of Fredericksborg to Inigo Jones on the ground of its resemblance to the inner quadrangle of St. John's, Oxford, and to Heriot's Hospital. In point of fact there is little reason to suppose that Jones had anything to do with either St, John's or Heriot's Hospital, and there is very little resemblance between the three buildings. The Fredericksborg Castle is in much the same manner as Cronenburg Castle, of which the architect was a certain G. F. Stahlmann, as appears from two drawings at Chiswick. In one point Webb's account is clearly inaccurate. He says that Inigo Jones accompanied Christianus to England in 1606, whereas it is known he was in England in 1604-5 I for on Twelfth Night, 1605, " the Masque of Blacknesse," composed by Ben Jonson, was performed at Whitehall, " of which the bodily part was of Master Inigo Jones's design and art." At this time he would have been thirty-one years of age ; if, therefore, as W^ebb states, he resided ' " Denmark Delineated." INIGO JONES 99 many years in Italy before he was summoned by Christianiis, not many years are available for his stay in Denmark. Webb wrote in a large manner without any too particular regard for accuracy. At the same time he would hardly have made an absolute misstatement of a fact which must have been within the knowledge of his contemporaries, and we may take it from his account that Jones was in the service of the Danish Court for some time previous to 1604, but probably was employed in a subordinate capacity, perhaps as draughtsman to Christian, who had a weakness for designing himself. It seems clear that when Inigo Jones returned to England in 1604 he had some reputation as a traveller, but was not yet known as an architect. For instance, when in 1605 the University of Oxford desired to entertain King James with three plays in the hall of Christ Church, they obtained the assistance of two of "his Majesty's master carpenters" and of the controller of his works for the construction of the stage. "They also hired one Mr. Jones, a great Traveller, who undertook to further them much, and furnish them with rare Devices, but performed very little of that which was expected. He had for his pains, as I heard it constantly reported, ^50." ' It is evident from the account of the fee paid that Jones already enjoyed a considerable repu- tation as a man of knowledge and resource, but there is no evidence that he was employed on any building at all prior to his appointment as Surveyor to Henry, Prince of Wales, in 16 10. Up to that date he seems to have been regarded as a man of ready invention and versatile capacity, and when he was not engaged in designing and superintend- ing the scenery for the constant succession of masques at Court, he was employed on miscellaneous duties, such as that of a King's Messenger. Thus in 1609 he was employed to carry the King's letters into France. After his appointment as Surveyor-General to Prince Henry in 1610, he superintended certain repairs and alterations at St. James's, Richmond, and Sheen, and in May, 161 1, together with Francis Carter, Prince Henry's clerk of the works, he drew up an estimate "of the charge of the pyling, plancking, and brickwork for the three islands at Rich- mont," in order to carry out the design of Solomon de Caux, so that as late as the middle of 161 1 it appears that he was not yet employed purely and simply as an architect." Walpole's speculation that to the ' As a matter of fact this was thu first occasion on which shifting scenery was used in England. - Mr. Home, who discovered this estimate, signed by Inigo Jones, and Francis Carter and others, in the Record Office, has printed it in full in " The Hobby Horse '' for loo RENAISSANCE ARCH llEC r U RE IN ENGLAND period between his first and second journeys to Italy are to be assigned "those buildings of Inigo which are less pure, and border too much upon that bastard style which one calls King James's Gothic," is not sujjported b)' any evidence whatever. The earliest signed architectural design by Inigo Jones in existence ' is dated 1616, and there are drawings in the Worcester Library, dated 1617, for certain works in the Star Chamber ; and the conclusion suggested by all the evidence at present discovered is that he did not setde down to the practice of architecture as his one absorbing art till after his retm-ii from his second visit to Italy. Meanwhile he had already established his position at Court. He was on intimate terms with the Earl of Shaftesbury and other noble- men, and with most of the men of letters of the time," who were mainly dependent on him for the setting of their masques. The important work done by Inigo Jones in this regard hardly belongs to a history of architecture ; but the fact that the best part of his energies for nearly ten years of his life (1604- 16 13) was devoted to designing for masques is a sufficient reason for a short account of his work,'' and of the entirely new departure which he introduced into stage scenery and management. The masques played at Court and elsewhere in the early part of the seventeenth century were on a scale of great magnificence. The most brilliant noblemen and ladies of the Court were the actors, and the pieces were mounted at prodigal cost. In the " Hue and Cry after Cupid," by Ben Jonson, with scenery by Inigo Jones (1608), the actors were such men as Lord Arundel, Lord Pembroke, Lord Montgomery, and the IDuke of Lennox; and in 1630 the king himself acted in the masque of " Love's Triumph through Callipolis," and the queen returned the courtesy by acting the principal jjart in the masque of " Chloridia " in the same year. Shirley's " Triumph of Peace," presented by the Societies of the Middle and Inner Temple, Lincoln's Inn, and Gray's Inn, at Whitehall, on February 3rd, 1634, October, 1893. Mr. Home says that he has been unable to discover any evidence that Inigo Jones had carried out any considerable architectural work prior to the death of Prince Henry in 161 2. ' In the Duke of Devonshire's collection. - I am indebted to Mr. Home for reference to a Latin poem by Tom Coryat de- scribing a supper at the Mitre, where, among the list of distinguished guests, occurs, "nee indoctus, nee profanus, Ignatius architectus." ^ For more detailed information I must refer to Mr. Home's study of Inigo Jones in "The Hobby Horse" for 1893 ct seq., and to three papers contributed by myself to "The Portfolio" in 1889. u o o 102 RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND was estimated by Whitelock, a contemporary, to have cost _;^ 20,000. A good deal of this money went on sumptuous dresses, usually dcsi^^ned by Inigo Jones, but the greater part must have been spent on the scenery. The masques were played on improvised stages, and it is probable that on each occasion fresh mechanical appliances were furnished by the ingenuity of Inigo Jones, for he completely revolu- tionized the scenery of the stage. As is well known, the mechanical resources of Shakespeare's stage were quite primitive. No such thing as movable scenery existed. Its place was supplied by the "nun- cupations, only in text letters," and the very form of the playhouse, in which the stage projected into the house, with galleries in front and at each side carried up to the back line of the stage, made such scenery impossible. The great improvements made by Inigo Jones were all developed from his initial change in the form of the stage itself. The stage which he used for the masques was set back behind the extreme ends of the side seats, and inclosed by an architectural or other border, much in the manner of the gigantic picture-frames which inclose the stages of modern theatres. Behind this, and out of sight of the spectators, he was able to provide the necessary room for scene-shifting. He worked his changes by means of painted slips, or, as he calls them, " shutters," with a large painted scene filling in the background. There are several sets of designs for these shutters at Chatsworth, all in sets of four, and each shutter carefully drawn in perspective in relation to the rest. Amonsf the Lansdowne IMSS. in the British Museum are eight drawings by Inigo Jones of the machinery for shifting his scenes, including a plan and section with written directions for the machinery of " Salmacida Spolia," Whitehall, 1639-40. It appears from these that the shutters were rolled backwards and forwards on runners fixed at top and bottom, and pulleys were arranged at the sides to raise and lower the clouds. The floor of the stage was raised at the back eight feet above the floor of the house, with a fall of one foot to the front, and under the stage were placed windlasses and other contrivances for raising platforms, on which the masquers were introduced. Movable scenery was the most important improvement brought by Inigo Jones from Italy, and there can be little doubt that he greatly developed the mechanical resources of the stage all round. Lighting, for instance, was very carefully considered. Instead of the hanging candles and half-a-dozen footlights of the public playhouse, the stage for the masques was brilliantly lighted. In " The Masque of Queens " the friezes both above and below were filled in with various coloured lights "like emeralds, INIGO JONES 103 rubies, sapphires, carbuncles, etc., the reflex of which, with our lights placed in the concave upon the masquers' habits, was full of glory." ' The sumptuous magnificence of the Renaissance, its pride of colour and glory of display, is surely indicated in this account. The years which Inigo Jones spent in Italy were not in vain. He returned to England filled with the very spirit of the great Italian artists of the Renaissance, and lifted the art of his country on to an altogether different plane. The homely fancy, the lovable humility, as one might say, of its traditional art were laid aside ; the art of this country was to be no longer an affair of happy instinct, but completely conscious, dependent on scholarship almost as much as on capacity in design. Henceforward abstract thought, and imagination under rigid restraint, were to supersede the poetry of mediaeval fancy. Inigo Jones was employed to design the scenery of the masques at ' The following list includes most of the masques in which Inigo Jones was employed : "The Masque of Blacknesse," by Ben Jonson, 1604-5. Three plays at Christ Church, Oxford, 1605. " liymenffii,"' Ben Jonson, 1605-6. " The Hue and Cry after Cupid," Ben Jonson, 1607-8. "Masque of Queens," Ben Jonson, 160S-9. " Tethy's Festival," by Daniel, 1610. "Love freed from Ignorance and Folly," Ben Jonson, 1610. In this masque, for the first time, Jonson omitted any mention of Inigo Jones, and so began their lifelong enmity. " Oberon," Ben Jonson, 16 10- 11. "The Lord's Masque," Thomas Campion, and a Masque by George Chapman, 1 6 1 2 1 3 "Christmas Masque," Ben Jonson, 161 7. "Masque of Augurs," Ben Jonson, 1622. "Time Vindicated," Ben Jonson, 1622-23. "Neptune's Triumph," Ben Jonson, 1623-24. " Pan's Anniversary,'" Ben Jonson, 1624-25. "Pastoral Play," Ben Jonson, 1625-26. "The Fortunate Isles," Ben Jonson, 1625-26. "Albion's Triumph," Aurelian Townsend, 1630-31. " Love's Triumph through Callipolis " and " Chloridia," Ben Jonson. 1631. "Tempe Restored," Aurelian Townsend, 1631-32. "Triumph of Peace," James Shirley, 1633-34. "CeIuhi Britannicuni," Thomas Carew, 1633-34. "Temple of Love," Davenant, 1634-35. " Florimen," 1635. "Love's Mistress," Hey wood, 1636. "The Royal Slave," Thomas Cartwright, 1636. "Britannia Triumphans," Davenant, 1637-38. " Liminalia," 1637. "Salmacida Spolia," Davenant, 1639-40. I04 RKNAISSANCE ARCHITECTURl' IN IINGLANO Court ill each )car from 1605 to 16 12, the year of Prince I lenry's death. Except possibly in 16 17, he was not employed again till 1 621, after which he was regularly called upon to design the scenery whenever a masque was presented at Court. It is possible that his quarrel with Ben Jon.son may have had something to do with the neglect of him between 1612 and 162 1. Ben Jonson was irritated by the increasing interest attached to the scenery, and the consequent diminution in his own importance, and Inigo Jones, who seems to have considered the poetry as an occasion for magnificent spectacle, is not likely to have been content with anything less than complete control of the viisc en scene. Ben Jonson showed his resentment by omitting any mention of Inigo Jones in the description of his masques, and by satire so virulent that it was suppressed by order. The last masque for which Jones designed was the " Salmacida Spolia," by Davenant, 1639-40, the object of this masque being to express the king's anxiety "by all means to reduce tempestuous and turbulent natures into a sweet calm of civil concord." On September 2nd, 1640, appeared the ordinance of both Houses of Parliament for " the suppressing of public stage-plays through the kinijdom during these calamitous times." After the death of Prince Henry in 161 2, Inigo Jones's appointment of Surveyor of the Works lapsed, and early in the following summer he started on his second journey into Italy. The dates of his visit to Italy are surrounded with uncertainty. The only authorities are the entries in his annotated copy of " Palladio " in Worcester College Library. In Book I., folio 52, is an entry "London, Jan. i8th, 1614," and in Book II., folio 8, " \'icenza, Jan. iSth, 1614," and by a com- parison of the dates and places entered in his " Palladio," it would appear that he was in Rome on January 2nd, 1614, in London, January i ith, in London or Vicenza on January 1 8th, and in London, January 26th. This confusion of dates casts some doubt on the meaning of these entries. However, there is little doubt that he stayed in Italy from the middle of 1613 till the autumn of 1614, chiefly at Rome, Vicenza, and Tivoli, with perhaps a flying visit to England in January, 1614. His second visit to Italy was taken partly in the service of the Earl of Arundel, for whom he collected works of art, and he was also employed in this capacity by the Earl of Pembroke and Lord Danvers ; but the main object of his journey was further training in painting, and a thorough study of classical architecture. He spent long days amid the ruins of Rome, with his " Palladio " in hand, verifying illustrations, correcting errors, making notes on the buildings, and bitter comments on the INIGO JONES '05 Vandalism of the time. It is evident from his notes that he had studied the writings of Serlio, Vignola, Fontana, Labacco, and PhiHbert de rOrnie, and was acquainted with the most famous architects then Hving in Rome. He mentions a conversation he had with Scamozzi on August 1st, 1614, in reference to a point in Palladio. He had, however, a very i4;jL^ci CEILIN'G, WILTON. poor opinion of Scamozzi, for in another note he accuses liim of ignorance, and malice against Palladio, and notes that " in this, as in most other thines else, Scamozzi errs." In the Worcester Collection there are some leaves of a MS. treating of windows numbered 162 ^/ scq., and studies of the orders and temples, executed with a degree of care which makes it probable that they were intended for publication. There is, however, no record that Inigo Jones ever carried out this intention. p io6 RENAISSANCE A RCHlTiXTU RE L\ ENGLAND In 1615 Inigo Jones succeeded Simon Basil as Surveyor-General ol the \\^)rks, at a fee of 8^-. a day for his entertainment, /"So per annum lor his "recompense of availes," and 2^. 8^/. a day for riding and travelling expenses. A warrant for his living at ^12 15^. \od. is dated March i6th, 161 5, and in 1629 a yearly grant of ^46 was made him for the rent of his house in Scotland Yard.' Out of these fees he aereed to forego his fee of entertainment owing to the embarrassed state of the exchequer. In 161 7 he prepared designs and a model for a new Star Chamber, and began the Queen's House at Greenwich. In the same year he began the niiw Chapel of Lincoln's I nn,^ which was consecrated in 1623. This chapel is the one certain instance of a design by Jones in Gothic architecture, and Mr. Home thinks it likely that the design was made in 16 10, when the old chapel was pulled down, that is before Inigo Jones had arrived at his mature manner. There is no evidence beyond a vague tradition that he had anything to do with the Church of St. Catherine Cree (1628-30), but St. Albans, Wood Street, which was burnt in the Great Eire, is known to have been in the Gothic manner,'' and this has always been attributed to Inigo Jones. In 1 618 he was appointed one of the commissioners to lay out Lincoln's Inn Fields, with instructions to prepare a plan for this purpose. The picture at Wilton is a view of Lincoln's Inn Eields in the eighteenth century, and is certainly not Inigo Jones's original draft. It shows, however, Lindsa)- House and the houses on the west side, with the rose and fleur-de-lis which were designed by Inigo Jones some years later, and which are now the best examples left of his street architecture. Shaftesbury House (No. 55, Aldersgate Street, now destroyed) was another example. In the year 16 19 he was ordered to design the new buildings at Whitehall. There are several variations in the published designs. Campbell published his set of plates in the " Yitruvius Britannicus," 1717-1725, and states that he obtained the originals, which he dates 1639, from Mr. William Emmet of Bromley. These drawings are now in Worcester College Library. Campbell, however, is by no means to be trusted, for he also says that the Banqueting Hall was built in 161 7, that is, two years before Jones was commissioned to make the designs. Moreover, it is pretty certain that the drawings from which he published his plates were not by Inigo Jones, but drafts by ' Authorities quoted by Mr. Home in Article Ini^o Jones. ' Since altered by Lord Grimthorpe. ' Wren's " Parentalia." ■■■Ji .^->-=*! ITS I ^ ^ o C ^- -.; -jas. It\i-- • ■ 1^' -"J^^- \P>'" ,':;'"& .JMr;:; .--r:^ :iaiij ;^ J ' laj |E3 iai! jrai !es \M iira| |E3 1'^': !ta| fea -,;.s?^ 3'*;l i«a| lis E'iB,: CD '.asa GtT! ISP.-M! .nc- jLSi'^iisJi, ■^W ; ■■■- frik^ 'J ,_£»*',«' i,-; :e33 :;■ ^^i&feJSfe^^iBil' ^^j T ^-rS - i;^=-_^3L*^3''& i Ij.8i¥a.--r^t-. O C > !! ■,.s=: . .1^-1 .[flKl INIGO JONES lO^ John Webb from the original designs made by Inigo Jones in 1619.' William Kent published a set of plates in 1727, from drawings in the possession of the Earl of Burlington ; these drawings also appear to have been made by Webb, and many of them are now in the collections at Chiswick and Chats- ic.-i. 'f •"» worth. Besides the nu- merous variations in detail, two distinct sets of designs appear to have been made by Inigo Jones. The first (1619), and this is the set figured in Campbell from the drawings in W^orcester College Library," was only about half the size of the subsequent de- sign, the total dimen- sions being 630 ft. by 460 ft. The second, which is given by Kent from originals now at Chatsworth, was to be double the size, 1,280 ft. long by 950 ft. wide. The Chatsworth draw- ings are entitled " The ground plant for the palace of Whitehall for King Charles ye first taken. John Webb,'' architect," and the elevation, "upright for the palace of Whitehall, for King Charles the first taken, but the front is to be arranged (?) . ' Several of the Whitehall drawings are signed "John Webb, architect," and were evidently made up by Webb from Inigo Jones's sketches. With the e.\ce[>tion of a drawing entitled " Skizo of the great door. Ban. Ho. 1619," there is no drawing for Whitehall which can with any certainty be assigned to the hand of Inigo Jones. " The large plan on a folding sheet in the chest at \\'orcester, signed "Jolm Webb," is a plan of the larger (and in my opinion later) scheme. The other drawings in this chest belong to the earlier design. ^ John Webb was pupil to Inigo Jones, and assisted him in most of his later works. DOOR, WHITKHAI.I.. loS RENAISSANCE ARCH ITIXTURE IN ENGLAND according to ye ground Plott. John Webb." The meaning of this last provision was that it was to include Inigo Jones's Banqueting House, which was already built. It seems certain from this express reference to Charles I. that the original design was almost exactly doubled in size when Charles I. took up the Wliitehall schemes.' For instance, the great central court was 392 ft. by 198 ft. in Jones's original design for James I., whereas in the plan prejjared by him for Charles I., and accepted, this court becomes about 800 ft. by 400 ft. So again, the circular court which in the first design had a diameter of 140 feet, has a diameter of about 280 feet in the later design preserved at Chatsworth. The astonishing thing is that, in spite of this heroic increase in scale, the original plan was to be preserved throughout. Roughly speaking, the site was to occupy the whole of the space from Whitehall Gardens to the ground at the back of the Treasury ; the north side passing through the Horse Guards ; the south following a line through the middle of the Home Office; and the plan was to consist of a huge rectangular block, 1,280 ft. long by 950 ft." wide. This was divided into three parts, the central division was to be occupied by an immense court, 800 ft. long by 400 ft. wide,' running north and south ; the division to the west was subdivided into three courts, of which the centre was the famous circular or Persian court, 280 feet in diameter, with oblong courts on either side ; the division to the east, with front to the river, was also divided into three courts, the centre one square corresponding to the circular court, and the two end ones oblong. In one of the alternative schemes, the central court was to be occupied with buildings, but this idea was abandoned. The elevation was symmetrical, the composition consisting of a regular facade, with projecting blocks in the centre and at the ends, carried up above the intermediate range of buildings. The height to the top of the centre block was to be about I 10 feet. The work was begun in haste. The old Banqueting House had been burnt in January, 16 19. Inigo Jones's design for the new hall and estimate ' Mr. Loftie, in liis able account of Inigojones ("I.Jones and C.Wren," 1S93), following the hasty summary of Ferguson, exactly reverses this, no doubt on the evidence of Campbell, who describes his set of plates " as it was presented to his Majesty, King Charles I., by the famous Inigo Jones, 1639." Campbell, however, is quite untrustworthy as to dates, and the definite inscription by Webb on the drawings of the larger design, quoted in the text, seems to place it beyond doubt that Charles, instead of reducing the original design proposed for James I., very greatly enlarged it. '■' These dimensions are taken by scale from the drawings at Chatsworth. ^ Parliament Street runs over the site marked out for this court. wr^m: U-.J/ ''Mi h^^: ^ ifmM o OS n- O Z s — ^ 2 hsss-. < a Q 5^ 5->" ^ 4:*^^^;*^***r a 3 :t INIGO JONES 109 of cost (^9,850) were completed in thft spring, and tlic first stone was laid on June ist of the same year. The new IJanquetinj^ House was completed March 31st, 1622, at a cost of ^15,653 3^. 3^'. This building, sumptuous as it is, was only intended as a subordinate feature of a vast facade,^ but it is the only part of the design that was ever carried out. Charles I. revived the scheme on a colossal scale, apparently between 1630 and 1640, but there was no money available, and the increasing difficulties in which the king became involved, put a stop to any possibility of carrying out this magnificent design. The boldness and originality of Inigo Jones's conception is amazing. It has appeared, from our survey of English architecture in the si.xteenth century, how utterly wanting this art had been in what may be called architecture in the grand manner, that is, architecture on a great scale, and depending for its effect upon proportion and orderly distribution, that is, on the abstract and essential qualities of architecture, rather than on the accidents of detail. Throughout the Elizabethan age costly palaces had been built, such as WoUaton and Audley End, but not one of these great houses can be said to embody any large architectural idea. They are more or less picturesque masses of building, tricked out with adventitious ornament, which might be shorn away without materially injuring the architecture ; the detail itself is usually wanting in refinement and distinction, and though these houses arrest our sympathy by their associations, considered from a purely critical stand- point they only rank as second-rate work. There was, in fact, no precedent whatever in England for such a building as Inigo Jones desig-ned for Whitehall. The force of his genius is shown in the fact that almost at one effort, and without previous failures, he was able to create a finished masterpiece of design in a manner that was as yet quite unfamiliar in England. The Banqueting House, mere fragment though it is of a stupendous design, is to this day the most accomplished piece of proportion in England, and not inferior to the finest work of Palladio and the great Italian masters. From this time forward till the outbreak of the Civil War, Inigo Jones was constantly employed by the king. Mr. Home has dis- covered in the Record Office an account of money disbursed for his riding expenses, which shows that much of his time must have been spent in the saddle, travelling up and down p]ngland in the superintend- ence of his work. In 1620 he was made a member of a commission to ' The exact position it was to occuiiy was on tiie east side of the great central court. no RENAISSANCE ARCl 1 ITECTURE IN ENGLAND inquire into all new buildings erected in London since the beginnino- of the rei''o Jones, his genius is shown in his superb treatment of these simple elements. Hawksmoor, with the same problem before him, would have blundered into clumsiness, but, as handled by a master, the great shadows of this portico, and the exact proportions of its parts, make it one of the most impressive facades in London. Historically, it is interesting as anticipating the great porticoes to churches, introduced by Hawksmoor, Gibbs, and James in the eighteenth century, though, as Mr. Loftie points out in the case of St. Paul's, Covent Garden, the portico, owing to the necessity of placing it at the east end, belongs to the square rather than to the church. A comparison of this authentic building with such buildings as the inner court of St. John's, Oxford, and St. Catherine Cree, make it very improbable that the latter can have been designed by Inigo Jones. At St. Catherine Cree the south doorway is the only detail that bears any resemblance to his manner. The work at St. John's, Oxford, was first attributed to Inigo Jones by P. Heylyn (" Cypriacus Anglicanus," 1688, quoted by Willis and Clark, iii. 277), who describes the new buildings at St. John's, begun by Laud in 1631, as "fashioned in an L,, ,11. _. o a Q ^ ^ JTMlLfiKM2EWl|i^£X7J.n3: ^^,*«. -»* - £>===;^ --^ o i 55 & O ^ 4Xf I f GREENWICH HOSPITAL. 112 RliNAlSSANCE ARCl 1 1 IHC 1 I' Ri: L\ luNC.RAN I) excellent symmetry according to the exactest rules of modern architec- ture." St. Catherine Crec was consecrated by Laud in 1630. The two buildings have one feature in common : the arches are brought down direct on to the abacus of the columns ; but th(;re is no evidence what- ever, beyonil a vague tradition, that Inigo Jones had anything to do with either of these buildings. In regard to St. John's, there is no reference to Inigo Jones in the college books, whereas Lesueur, who made the two bronze figures, is mentioned, and it seems most unlikely that an architect so steeped in Palladianism as Inigo Jones could have had anything to do with the detail of the St. John's work, which is evidently Memish in feeling. It is possible that the work was designed and e.xecuted by Lesueur himself, or some foreign artist about the court. It is essentially sculptor's work, that is to say, the central frontispiece of the inner court has no relation to the main architectural lines of the rest of the building.' The detail is rather exuberant, but exceedingly well executed, and approaches in feeling the details on the Weston tomb at Winchester by Lesueur. The architecture of the east quad- rangle of .St. John's (excepting the arcade) is ordinary English work, such as might have been done by Acroyde or Arnold of Wadham, and the garden front is almost Tudor in its low simple lines. The only features that differentiate it from ordinary Jacobean work are the arcade and the elaborate ornamentation of the east side of the quadrangle, which is blemish, and rather rococo in character, and of an order which Inigo Jones rarely used in any of his buildings. This legend may, 1 think, be dismissed with the equally unauthenticated tradition that he made the designs of Heriot's Hospital and the Bourse of Copenhagen. It is singular that, with the possible exception of two gateways, there is no evidence that Inigo Jones was employed at either Oxford or Cambridge. It is almost certain that the buildings at Christ's, Cam- bridge, erected in 1642, are not by him. Somewhere about 1620 Jones was ordered to survey old St. Paul's. The cathedral was in a state of disgraceful dilapidation, but nothing was done till Laud became Bishop of London. In 1631 a commission was issued for the repair of the building. Laud succeeded in raising .1^101,300,- and the works were begun in 1633, and continued till the outbreak of the Civil War, when the balance in hand was annexinl by the Parliament. The schcmie, it appears, was to gradually rebuild the cathedral, and Inigo Jones got as far as the south transept ' There is an excellent plate of this building in Mr. (lotch's series (plate 133). ' See Note p. 122. ^;4#% ^^ ^^' .iJ-' o , ^ 1^ :N r ^1 f^l r^ feg '■4>*-^-e --ae^-^ -ii ■^ p''j'i^i*fc.'Jfai.l^j.,^^- i;v .Nicholas stone. THE DESIGN .\TTRIBUTED TO INIGO JONES. INIGO JONES 113 when the works were stopped. There is a view of the west front by Hollar, and a drawing- of it at Chiswick. The design is inferior to Wren's, but it was much admired at the time, and Webb is enthusiastic over his " magnificent portico." It must be pointed out, however, that the steep-pitched pediment, flanked by two obelisks which terminated the nave, was necessitated by the pitch of the old nave roof It is to be noticed, moreover, both in regard to Wren and Inigo Jones, that there / r%' EAVES, CORNICE, AND QUOINS, CRANEORNE. is always a vast improvement in the building" as executed, com[)ared with the building as shown in their drawings. There can be little doubt that both men trusted far more to their actual supervision of the work, and to directions to be given as the building proceeded, than to their original draughts ; and further, that they possessed a more intimate knowledge of building materials, and a keener insight into their artistic possibilities than is possible to a modern architect, who, by the nature of his callinor and the exigrencies of contracts, is prevented from standinp^ over his building from start to finish, and, so to say, shaping and Q 114 RI'-NAlSSANCi: AK( 111 riXTURl-: IX ENGLAND moulding it on the spot into what he believes to be the most perfect form attainable. Jones's designs for the rebuilding of St. Paul's involved the destruction of St. Gregory's Church, and, in spite of the protest of the parishioners in 1637, he pulled down part of the church, and PORCH, WEST WOODHAY. threatened that they should be laid by the heels if they did not take down the remainder. He was summoned for this conduct before the House of Lords, and had to hand over his materials to the parishioners for the rebuildincr of their church. The Queen's House at Greenwich was finished in 1635, the date ■1*;. M. 1^1 M: m v\0 S v: ^x CO CO D a to 3 INIGO JONES 1 1 carved on the building. Some of the designs for Greenwich at Chis- wick are dated 1637, but most of these drawings were made by Webb tor Charles II. In the Soane Museum there is a large folio of mis- cellaneous designs by Inigo Jones, Wren, and others, containing designs for Greenwich, which will be referred to in my account of Wren. Folios 8 and 9 show the river front and side elevation of what is called King Charles block, which were undoubtedly designed by Inigo Jones, and these drawings may ha\-e been by his own hand. The masterly completion of this superb building is due to Wren, but to Inigo Jones belongs the credit of the original designs, and of having initiated a scale, which Wren alone was able to follow. In the same year (1637) the chapel of Old Somerset House was finished from designs by Inigo Jones, and in 1638 he prepared designs for additions and alterations to "the palace at Somerset House," three of which are preserved in Worcester College Library. One of the de- signs, which is marked " not taken," shows a fine elevation in three orders, each order including two storeys ; the total height to the top of the cornice being 1 10 feet. At Chiswick there is a drawing for " the chimney-piece," for the gallery of Somerset House, dated 1636, which shows that he had already designed the great gallery. In Kip's view of Somerset House,' Inigo Jones's block occupies the centre of the river facade, and behind it stood the older building of Protector Somerset, which seems to have resembled in style Wolsey's buildings at Hampton Court. There are two drawings at Chiswick for the gateway at Temple Bar, dated 1636 and 1638, which do not appear to have been carried out. The older parts of West CAPITAL TO PORCH, WEST WOODHAV. Britannia Illustrata. I 16 RI-XAISSANCE ARCH ITl'TTT RF. IN ENGLAND Woodhay House, including the entrance porch, built 1635, arc: jirobably by loncs. In 1636 he designed the Barber Surgeons' Hall in Monk- well Street, the greater part of wliich is now destroyed, including the oval lecture theatre, shown in the drawing in the Worcester Lil)rary. This theatre was pulled down in 17S2. In 1637-S he de- signed the choir screen of Winchester Cathedral, since destroyed. One of his latest works in London seems to have been Lindsay House in Lincoln's Inn Fields, a fine stone built house, completed in 1640. Two of the piers in front of the forecourt remain, but Hatton says that four of "the fine spacious brick piers" had been removed in his time, 1708. The date given for Shaftesbury House in Aldersgate Street is 1644, but Inigo Jones was then at Basing House, and it was probal)ly completed at about the same time as Lindsay House (1640- 1642). Shaftesbury House is now destroyed. It resembled Lindsay House in its general design, and consisted of a basement storey support- ing a single large Ionic order in five bays, which included two storeys. The centre bay was flanked by coupled pilasters, and had a broken circular pediment above the first floor window. The house was built for the Earl of Thanet, but was sold by him to Anthony Ashley Cooper, I'"arl of Shaftesbury. On the outbreak of the Civil War, Inigo Jones left London, having, according to the tradition, buried his money in Lambeth marshes, with the help of his faithful sculptor, Nicholas Stone. He was attached to the Royal Cause, and his arbitrary action in the matter of .St. Gregory's Church made him exceedingly unpopular with the citizens. In 1643 "he was thrust out of office for his loyalty, and fled to Basing House in Hampshire, where he remained with Peake and Faithorne, Hollar, and Robinson the player, till the house was taken by Cromwell in 1645, after a siege of over two years. Inigo Jones was taken prisoner with the others, and in 1646 was condemned to pay a fine of .2^545, and a further sum of .;^500 for his fifth and twentieth part."' After this stormy passage in his career he seems to have resumed his work unmolested, and to this period belongs his work at Wilton. Aubrey's account is that Charles I. persuaded Philip, ist Earl of Pem- broke to build the garden front, intending Inigo Jones to design it, but as the latter was at this time (1633) occupied with the work at Green- wich, "he recommended it to an ingenious architect, M. Solomon de Cau.x, a Gascoigne, who performctl it very well," — that the south side of ' Mr. Home, "Diet. Nat. Hiog.," Art. Inigo Jones. CEILING, COUNTESS OF CARNARVON S BKDCHAMBER ( Wni-ces/er Cnllcgc Colkclinii) DETAIL OF ELEVATION OF OLD SOMERSET HOUSE (Worccslcr College Collcclioii\ li^ ^ '.V^.* -w-'T.'.- ^ Fa