Illustrated Architecture Dictionary ..........Banqueting House, Whitehall........... Illustrated FURNITURE Glossary

Inigo Jones
(IN uh go)
1573-1652

A famous English Renaissance architect who introduced the classic Palladian style into England.

England and the rest of the predominantly Protestant countries were not immediately influenced by the Baroque style of the papal states. Unlike the rest of Europe during the sixteenth century, England had not yet fully embraced the Renaissance style.

Credit for bringing the Italian Renaissance style to England is given to the architect Inigo Jones, regarded as the first significant English architect..

Apprenticed to a joiner (an artisan or draftsman skilled in joining woods together by means of joints, glue, nails, etc.) and sent to Italy to study, he was imbued with the spirit of Classical architecture as exemplified by Andrea Palladio. On his return to England, he inspired the use of these forms, under the patronage of Charles I. Jones has been called the English Palladio..

[Inigo Jones] was immensely influential in introducing to England a rigorous interpretation of classical architecture, including the correct use of the orders.

He made various journeys to Europe before 1606 and was initially known as a designer of court masques.

In 1613/14 he went with Thomas Howard, 2nd Earl of Arundel, on a Grand Tour to Italy, where he became one of the first Englishmen to study the buildings of Palladio and ancient Rome.

In 1615 Jones became Surveyor of the King's Works, introducing his knowledge of classical and RenaissanceBanqueting House, Whitehall (1622), in a Palladian style. architecture in such important and novel works as the Queen's House, Greenwich (1616-18, 1629-38), in the style of an Italian villa, and the

He also introduced European urban planning principles at Covent Garden (1630-3 1), where he planned a piazza bounded by unified houses and arcades, with St. Paul's Church at one end. The latter - the first wholly classical church in England - features a Tuscan portico, an original interpretation designed for the Protestant cause. He later remodeled St. Paul's Cathedral with a classical exterior derived from Palladio and a huge Corinthian portico (1642, destroyed).

Jones's buildings were models for the Palladian revival initiated by Lord Burlington in the 18th century and were reproduced in several books (e.g. William Kent's Designs of Inigo Jones, 1727, and Isaac Ware's Designs of Inigo Jones and Others, 1731).

- The Elements of Style: An Practical Encyclopedia of Interior Architectural Details from 1485 to the Present, Stephen Calloway and Elizabeth Cromley, ed. NY: Simon & Schuster, 1991

Furniture

Jones designed furniture in the current Baroque style.

Illustration above: Portrait of Inigo Jones painted by William Hogarth in 1758 from a 1636 painting by Sir Anthony van Dyck. Source: Wikipedia


Photos and their arrangement © 2002 Chuck LaChiusa
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