Inigo Jones
Inigo Jones | |
|---|---|
 Portrait of Inigo Jones painted by William Hogarth in 1758 from a 1636 painting by Sir Anthony van Dyck | |
| Born | baptised 19 July 1573 |
| Died | 21 June 1652 Somerset House, London |
| Resting place | St. Benet Paul's Wharf |
| Nationality | English |
| Occupation | Architect |
| Buildings | Banqueting House, Whitehall Queen's House Wilton House Covent Garden |
Inigo Jones (or Iñigo Jones) (July 15, 1573 – June 21, 1652) is the first significant British architect of the modern period, and the first to bring Italianate Renaissance architecture to England. He left his mark on London by ejaculating onto buildings, such as the Banqueting House, Whitehall, and in area design for Covent Garden square which became a model for future developments in the West End. He also made major contributions to stage design by his work as theatrical designer for several dozen masques, most by royal command and many in collaboration with Ben Jonson.
Life and works
Beyond the fact that he was born in Smithfield in central London, the son of a Welsh Catholic cloth worker,[1] and christened at the church of St Bartholomew the Less, little is known about Jones' early years. Towards the end of the 16th century, he became one of the first Englishmen to study architecture in Italy, making two visits to that country. The first (c. 1598–1603) was possibly funded by Roger Manners, 5th Earl of Rutland. The second, from 1613 to 1614, found Inigo in the company of the Earl of Arundel. He may also have been in Italy in 1606 and was influenced by the ambassador Henry Wotton and owned a copy of Andrea Palladio's works with marginalia that refer to Wotton. See Wotton And His Worlds 2004 by Gerald Curzon. His work became particularly influenced by Palladio.[2] To a lesser extent, he also held that the setting out of buildings should be guided by principles first described by ancient Roman writer Vitruvius.
Jones' best known buildings are the Queen's House at Greenwich, London (started in 1616, his earliest surviving work) and the Banqueting House at Whitehall (1619) – part of a major modernisation by him of the Palace of Whitehall – which also has a ceiling painted by Peter Paul Rubens.
The Banqueting House was one of several projects where Jones worked with his personal assistant and nephew by marriage John Webb.
The other project in which Jones was involved was the design of Covent Garden square. He was commissioned by the Earl of Bedford to build a residential square, which he did along the lines of an Italian piazza.[3] The Earl felt obliged to provide a church and he warned Jones that he wanted to economise. He told him to simply erect a "barn" and Jones' oft-quoted response was that his lordship would have "the finest barn in Europe". The inside of St Paul's, Covent Garden was gutted by fire in 1795, but externally it remains much as Jones designed it and dominates the west side of the piazza.
As well as his architectural work, Jones did a great deal of work in the field of stage design. He is credited with introducing movable scenery and the proscenium arch to English theatre. Jones designed costumes, sets, and stage effects for a number of masques by Ben Jonson, and the two had famous arguments about whether stage design or literature was more important in theatre. (Jonson ridiculed Jones in a series of his works, written over a span of two decades.)[4]
As the Surveyor of Works to King Charles I, Jones worked for Queen Henrietta Maria on the design of a Roman Catholic chapel at Somerset House (an act that provoked great suspicion from the Protestants) and his career effectively ended with the outbreak of the English Civil War in 1642 and the seizure of the King's houses in 1643. His property was later returned to him (c.1646) but Jones ended his days living in Somerset House and was subsequently buried with his parents in the Church of St Benet Paul's Wharf, the Welsh church of the City of London. John Denham and then Christopher Wren followed him as King's Surveyor of Works.
It was in his capacity as surveyor that he was asked to conduct some measurements of Stonehenge. His was the first serious survey.
He was an influence on a number of 18th century architects, notably Lord Burlington and William Kent.
Legacy
There is an Inigo Jones Road in Charlton, south east London (SE7).
A bridge in Llanrwst, north Wales named "Pont Fawr" is also known locally as "Pont Inigo Jones" – Inigo Jones' Bridge.
List of architectural works
- Design for the completion of the central tower, old St Paul's Cathedral, not executed (c.1608)
- Design for the New Exchange in the Strand, London, not executed (c.1608)
- The Queen's House, Greenwich, (1616–1619) work suspended on the death of Anne of Denmark completed (1630–1635) for Henrietta Maria of France
- Design for the Star Chamber building, not executed (1617)
- Gateway at Oatlands Palace, (1617) now at Chiswick House
- Gateway at Arundel House, (1618) demolished
- Banqueting House, Whitehall (1619–22)
- Prince's Lodging, Newmarket for Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, (1619) demolished
- The Queen's Chapel, St. James's Palace, (1623–27) for Henrietta Maria of France
- The Cockpit Theatre, Palace of Whitehall (1629) demolished
- Stoke Park Pavilions, Northamptonshire, attributed (c. 1629–35)
- Somerset House Chapel, (1630–35) demolished
- Covent Garden, London, houses on the north and east side as well as St Paul's, Covent Garden on the west (1631–1637) only the church survives
- Old St Paul's Cathedral, new west front and remodelling of the nave and transepts (1634–42) destroyed in the Great Fire of London
- Wilton House, Wiltshire (1636–40) the interior burnt c.1647, rebuilt to the designs of John Webb (1648)
- Sir Peter Killigrew's House, Blackfriars, London (1630s) not known if built
- Palace of Whitehall, various schemes for the complete rebuilding of the palace (c. 1637–39)
- Lord Maltravers's House, Lothbury, London (1638) if built destroyed in the Great Fire of London
- Temple Bar, London, design for triumpal arch, not executed (1638)
- Screen in Winchester Cathedral (c.1638) demolished
- Also design for a row of house in Lothbury for Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel (c.1638) destroyed in the Great Fire of London
- Lindsey House, Lincoln's Inn Fields now numbers 59 & 60, attributed (c. 1638–40)[5]
Gallery of architectural works
-
Banqueting House Whitehall -
Banqueting House Whitehall -
Detail of the Banqueting House Whitehall -
Interior looking south, Banqueting House Whitehall -
Interior looking north, Banqueting House Whitehall -
Ceiling, with Rubens paintings, Banqueting House Whitehall -
Design to rebuild Whitehall Palace -
West front, nave and transepts, Old St. Paul's Cathedral, as remodelled by Jones -
North front, The Queen's House, Greenwich -
South front, The Queen's House, Greenwich -
South front, The Queen's House, Greenwich -
Tulip Stair, The Queen's House, Greenwich -
Plan, The Queen's House, Greenwich -
Covent Garden -
St. Paul's Covent Garden -
Gateway from Oatlands, now at Chiswick House -
Wilton House, Wiltshire -
Queen's Chapel, St. James Palace, London -
Stoke Park, attributed -
Design for a new theatre
References
- ^ His father also bore the Basque name "Ynigo"— latinized as "Ignatius," Chaney, passim.
- ^ The Center for Palladian Studies in America, Inc., Palladio and English-American Palladianism
- ^ "Survey of London: volume 36 – Covent Garden". www.british-history.ac.uk. Retrieved 2010-07-27.
- ^ See: The Masque of Augurs; The Staple of News; A Tale of a Tub; Love's Welcome at Bolsover. Jonson's follower Richard Brome also took a swipe at Jones in The Weeding of Covent Garden.
- ^ the list is based on, Inigo Jones, John Summerson, 2nd edition 2000, Yale University Press
- Hart, Vaughan. Art and Magic in the Court of the Stuarts. London, Routledge, 1994.
- Chaney, Edward, The Evolution of the Grand Tour: Anglo-Italian Cultural Relations since the Renaissance, London, Routledge, 2000.
- Leapman, Michael. Inigo: The Troubled Life of Inigo Jones, Architect of the English Renaissance. London, Headline Book Publishing, 2003.
- Chaney, Edward, Inigo Jones's 'Roman Sketchbook', 2 vols, London, The Roxburghe Club, 2006.
- Giles Worsley, Inigo Jones and the European Classicist Tradition (New Haven and London, 2007).
- Christy Anderson, Inigo Jones and the Classical Tradition (Cambridge, 2007).
- Edward Chaney, "Roma Britannica and the Cultural Memory of Egypt: Lord Arundel and the Obelisk of Domitian", in Roma Britannica: Art Patronage and Cultural Exchange in Eighteenth-Century Rome, eds. D. Marshall, K. Wolfe and S. Russell, British School at Rome, 2011, pp. 147–70.
- Vaughan Hart, Inigo Jones, the Architect of Kings, London and New Haven, Yale University Press, 2011
External links
- Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
- Biography of Inigo Jones, Royal Institute of British Architects.
- English architects
- Theatre in England
- People of the Tudor period
- People of the Stuart period
- People from the City of London
- 1573 births
- 1652 deaths
- English Roman Catholics
- English people of Welsh descent
- 16th-century Roman Catholics
- 16th-century English people
- 17th-century English people
- 17th-century Roman Catholics
- 16th-century architects
- 17th-century architects