Inigo Jones and Wren; or, The rise and decline of modern architecture in England

Preface

It is, perhaps, necessary to explain why the term “ Palladian ” is here chiefly used for the kind of architecture practised by Inigo Jones and Wren, to which the following pages relate. The only other possible word, “renascence,” or “ rennaissance,” is not sufficiently definite, and has moreover a foreign sound. Some people speak of “Queen Anne,” but the style was in vogue here in the time of Queen Anne’s great-grandfather, nearly a century before her glorious reign. The art, as described by Palladio, and as practised by himself at Vicenza, and by his contemporaries and followers in Venice, Padua, Genoa, Florence, Rome, and many other places, is easily recognised. Its influence was nowhere more marked than in England, which indeed may be termed its second home, and where it flourished even better than in its birthplace. The French, though their writers refer to the fact, seem never to have cared for it as we have done ; and the work of their great architects. Mansard, Perrault, Le Mercier, and their fellows, differs in many important particulars, nay, in fundamental viii Modern Architecture in England

principles, from that of Inigo Jones, Wren, Burlington, or Chambers, whose art was essentially English, though founded on Italian. As the w^ord “ Palladian ” then conveys a definite idea and is moreover easy to pronounce, and as after much seeking I have found no other name so suitable, I hope I may be excused for using it. “Queen Anne” has a limited, “ Italian” an unlimited meaning. True, the faults of Palladio, as set forth, not so much in his drawings as in his actual buildings, are easily discovered, though they hardly concern us here. He was careless of details, his ornaments are often coarsely cut, and though he had laid down such exact rules for proportion he was always ready to break them himself when occasion arose. It is perhaps this freedom as much as anything which recommended his views on the Italian style, itself founded on the Roman and that on the Grecian, to the admiring notice of posterity. There can be but little doubt that the publication of his book in 1570 led to its adoption here, as representing learned or classical art as distinguished from Gothic.

Another excuse or apology I have also to make. This book is not written for architects, nor is it by an architect. My earnest hope in launching it upon the world is that it may reach some of those by whom architects are employed. I do not doubt my critics, if I have any, will object that I have not used the correct terms in describing the architectural features of some buildings. But I have been advised that such terms are often

Preface ix

only a puzzle to the general reader ; that, as he is not about to design, they are superfluous, and that much talk about friezes, triglyphs, drops, modillions, architraves, entablatures, and so on, would only be a weariness and interrupt the course of the narrative or argument. At the same time, in several cases, I have added a more complete and technical account of any object which seemed to require it.

I should conclude this preface by saying that as I was writing the last lines of my last chapter, the book on the question. Is Architecture a Profession or an Art ? was put into my hands. I feel obliged to agree with nearly every word of it, and especially with Mr. Norman Shaw’s essay. I am glad to find so many architects ready to recognise the place and importance of art in design ; and though the volume came out too late to be of any advantage to me, I feel it is a cause of deep satisfaction that so powerful a movement should have been made, and by such eminent artists, to lay down distinctly the very principles on which every chapter of this book has been written. I cannot but think that before long the employers of architects will be brought to see that beauty in design is better than ornament, and far less costly.

I am not an architect, as I have said, but a member of the general public, though I belong to a profession the members of which as a class give the most employment to architects. I ought perhaps to apologise for venturing, even after many years b

X Modem Architecture in England

of study, to address the public on the subject ; but however eminent an architect may be, it is not the architect but his employer, the amateur, who is entitled to make the final decision ; and it cannot be doubted that much if not all of the bad building of the day is due to the ignorance or indifference of the architect’s employers.

I have endeavoured, I hope with success, to unravel the history of Inigo Jones’s two great designs for Whitehall, which have so completely puzzled previous writers, and I have endeavoured also to apply similar principles to the elucidation of the different schemes made by Wren for St. Paul’s.

The illustrations are mainly from the plates published during the golden age of English Palladian. They are, however, largely supplemented by photographs, especially of those charming buildings of the transitional period which are to be found in the west country, and where the Bath stone forms such a ready vehicle for the expression of poetry in stone. Mr. R. Wilkinson, of Trowbridge, has obligingly placed the results of many years’ photography at my disposal, and I beg to thank him warmly. The London Stereoscopic Company have also permitted me to have copies made from their productions, and I beg very gratefully to acknowledge their courtesy. The two prints from the works of Inigo Jones, which were published by the Society for Photographing Remains of Old London, I owe to the kindness of Mr. Alfred Marks.

Contents

I

Modern Gothic — Windsor Castle — Palace of Westminster — New Law Courts — Detail and Proportion— Salisbury and Chichester — The City of London — Ornament — Architectural Teaching — A Contrast — Churches — Gothic Churches — Wren’s Churches — Novelty — The Anomalous or Eclectic Style- — The chief want of Modern Architecture ..... Page 3

II

“An arch never sleeps” — Progress of the Pointed Arch — Objects of Gothic Builders — Flat Arches — Rules — Modern Imitations — The Albert Memorial — The last Gothic — The so-called “ Debased Style ” — Late Gothic at Oxford — The Staircase at Christ Church — -The Tom Tower — Late Gothic at Cambridge— Bath Abbey — Hospital at Corsham — Charles Church, Plymouth — Hampton Court — “Peter Torrysany” — St. James’s Palace — Middle Temple Hall — Inigo Jones — Wren . . . . . .19 xii Modern Architecture in England

III

A Time of Change — A New Style— Elizabethan Houses — Examples — The Irregular Type— The Regular Type — Haddon Hall and Longleat — The Duke’s House, Bradford— Cheshire Houses — John of Padua — The Masons — Lord Burghley.

Page 5 I

IV

The Beginnings of Palladian — The First Examples — Tombs by Torregiano — Sir Anthony Browne’s Monument — Mantelpieces — The Royal Exchange — Caius College— Recent Vandalisms — The Gates of Humility, Virtue and Knowledge, and Honour— Palladian in Fashion — John Shute — Lomazzo — Birth of Inigo Jones — Gothic and Palladian — Palladio — Vitruvius — Proportions of the principal Orders . . . . . . . -79

V

A List — Parentage and Name — Birth and Baptism — Visits Italy — A Landscape Painter — Proportion — In Denmark — -With Prince Henry — A Scene Painter — Surveyor-General — Numerous Drawings — Method of Working — Stage Experience— Arch Row, Lincoln’s Inn Fields — Greenwich — Somerset House — York House — Jones and Stone — New Palace of Whitehall — Design for James L — Design for Charles L — The Banqueting Hall — A Reredos — Old St. Paul’s — St. Paul’s, Covent Garden — Ashburnham House — Country Houses — School of Inigo Jones — Death and Burial . . . . .109

VI Wren

Wren and Oliver Cromwell — Wren and Webb — The Chapel of Pembroke College, Cambridge — The Sheldonian Theatre — The Library, Trinity College, Cambridge — Wren at Paris — The Great Fire — Windsor — Chelsea — Greenwich — The Monument — Hampton Court — Kensington . . . . 15 1

Contents

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VII

Obnoxious to Bishops — Many destroyed — Method of procedure — Case of St. Antholin’s — A Monstrous Falsehood — Classification — St. Paurs — Court Influence— A Protestant Design — An Artificial Design — Decorations — Parish Churches — Two principal Patterns — Domed Churches — Gothic Churches.