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Inigo Jones (July 15, 1573 – June 21, 1652) is regarded as the first significant British architect of the modern period, and the first to bring Italianate Renaissance architecture to England. He also made valuable contributions to stage design.
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Beyond the fact that he was born in the vicinity of 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. But 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. He was commissioned by the Earl of Bedford to build a residential square along the lines of an Italian piazza. 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". Little remains of the original church situated to the west 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.)[3]
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 in the Church of St Benet Paul's Wharf, in 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. While some of Jones's observations are questionable, and his interpretations and conclusions can only be regarded as fanciful at best, his was the first serious survey.
He was an influence on a number of 18th century architects, notably Lord Burlington and William Kent.
There is an Inigo Jones Road in Charlton, south east London (SE7).
"Inigo Jones"
in the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia.
INIGO JONES (1573-1651),, English architect, sometimes called the "English Palladio," the son of a cloth-worker, was born in London on the 15th of July 1573. It is stated that he was apprenticed to a joiner, but at any rate his talent for drawing attracted the attention of Thomas Howard, earl of Arundel (some say William, 3rd earl of Pembroke), through whose help he went to study landscape-painting in Italy. His preference soon transferred itself to architecture, and, following chiefly the style of Palladio, he acquired at Venice such a reputation that in 1604 he was invited by Christian IV. to Denmark, where he is said to have designed the two great royal palaces of Rosenborg and Frederiksborg. In the following year he accompanied Anne of Denmark to the court of James I. of England, where, besides being appointed architect to the queen and Prince Henry, he was employed in supplying the designs and decorations of the court masques. After a second visit to Italy in 1612, Jones was appointed surveyor-general of royal buildings by James I., and was engaged to prepare designs for a new palace at Whitehall. In 1620 he was employed by the king to investigate the origin of Stonehenge, when he came to the absurd conclusion that it had been a Roman temple. Shortly afterwards he was appointed one of the commissioners for the repair of St Paul's, but the work was not begun till 1633. Under Charles I. he enjoyed the same offices as under his predecessor, and in the capacity of designer of the masques he came into collison with Ben Jonson, who frequently made him the butt of his satire. After the Civil War Jones was forced to pay heavy fines as a courtier and malignant. He died in poverty on the 5th of July 1651.
A list of the principal buildings designed by Jones is given in Dallaway's edition of Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting, and for an estimate of him as an architect see Fergusson's History of Modern Architecture. The Architecture of Palladio, in 4 books, by Inigo Jones, appeared in 1715; The Most Notable Antiquity of Great Britain, called Stonehenge, restored by Inigo Jones, in 1655 (ed. with memoir, 1725); the Designs of Inigo Jones, by W. Kent, in 1727; and The Designs of Inigo Jones, by J. Ware, in 1757. See also G. H. Birch, London Churches of the X VIIth and X VIIIth Centuries (1896); W. J. Loftie, Inigo Jones and Wren, or the Rise and Decline of Modern Architecture in England (1893).
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Categories: JIR-JON | Architects
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