Everything about Inigo Jones totally explained
» For the Australian meteorologist, see Inigo Owen Jones.
Inigo Jones (
July 15,
1573 –
June 21,
1652) is regarded as the first significant
English architect, and the first to bring
Renaissance architecture to England. He also made valuable contributions to
stage design.
Beyond the fact that he was born in the vicinity of
Smithfield in central
London, the son of a Welsh Catholic cloth worker, 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. 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.)
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.
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