16/10/07 - Architectural History - The Renaissance in Britain: The Elizabethan Prodigy House and the Emergence of the Classical Plan

The architectural ideas of the Italian Renaissance began to appear in Britain in the early sixteenth century. At this time Scotland and England were separate nation states. The United Kingdom was formed in two stages: the 1603 Union of the Crowns (formation of United Kingdom); and the 1707 Union of Parliaments (United Kingdom becomes a unified state). Until 1707 the architectural styles of Scotland and England were distinctly different. During the eighteenth century they became more similar partly die to the movement of Scottish architects, such as Colen Campbell and Robert Adam, to London, where they worked for patrons in England as well as Scotland. This lecture deals with architecture in England during the sixteenth century - the Early English Renaissance.

The introduction of the Classical language of architecture to England occurred during the sixteenth century, which was a period of great social and political reform. At the beginning of the sixteenth century England was a medieval feudal state ruled over by a king and an aristocratic class of feudal barons. By the beginning of the seventeenth century England was a protestant mercantilist state in which a new middle class had come into being and in which the power of the barons had been weakened. A very significant event that occurred was the excommunication of King Henry VIII by the Pope in 1534. England then became a protestant country and all ties with Italy were severed. This inhibited the flow of ideas from Italy to England and had a significant effect on architectural style.

The architectural ideas of the Italian Renaissance appeared first as additions to existing medieval Gothic buildings. The tomb of Henry VII at Westminster Abbey has pilasters, utilises the Greek orders and has a distinct Italian confination of decoration, very much unlike the English Baroque which was apt to break its own boundaries. Also, it is noticeable that the figures of the tomb have free forms which contrasts with the very stylised treatment characteristic of the Gothic period. King's College Chapel in Cambridge has a screen of Classical inspiration. The King's Street Gate is ornamented with Classical language despite its similarity to the Holbein Gate which is a Gothic gate.

The principal effect of the break with Rome (1534) following the divorce of Henry VIII was that the ideas of the Italian Renaissance came to Britain indirectly, through various conduits, principally via France and the Low Countries. The most important consequences of the break were that Italian craftsmen were no longer prepared to work in England; that printed sources of various kinds influenced architectural development; that political developments led to the development of new sources of patronage, replacing those of Royalty and the Church with those of the new Universities and the mercantilist middle class. Henry VIII and Elizabeth I did not build anything significant during their reign because they felt at risk from Catholics and tried to pacify them by allowing them not to pay taxes, resulting in lower levels of money. The small amounts of money that the monarchy had was spent on war rather than building.

From the sixteenth century a number of architectural treatises were circulating in England, including: Vitruvius - various editions in Latin, Italian and French; Alberti - French editions of 1512 and 1533; Serlio - six volumes published between 1537 and 1551; Shute - the first English treatise (1563), including a description of the Orders; de Vries, 1563 - an important source of 'strapwork' detailing; and Palladio, 1570.

The fronispiece to Palladio's I Quattro Libri del' Architettura is laden with Classicism, and influenced Canterbury quad at St John's College, Oxford, built between 1632-36.

Strapwork was a form of ornamentation which was thought to have originated in connection with leatherwork but which was popularised through printed sources. Strapwork ornamentation came be seen on Wollaton Hall, Nottinghamshire by Smythson 1580-88.

As a result of the break from Italy, British architects did not have the same opportunities to travel there and to study Classical architecture first-hand. They made many mistakes in the use of the Classical language. There is an incorrect use of the Ionic order on the Gate of Honour at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, 1575.

In order to understand the significance of the changes to house planning that occurred in England in the sixteenth century, it is necessary to know something of the basic form of the medieval house. The largest room in the house was the hall. This was entered through a screen passage which was at right angles to the main axis of the hall. The hall was central to life in the house and was used for meal-taking by the whole household. The feudal baron sat at the 'high' table at the end of the hall opposite to the screen passage. The accommodation for the baron and his family was accessible from the 'high' end of the hall. The end of the hall adjacent to the screen passage was referred to as the 'low' end. Service functions for the house, such as the kitchen, was off the 'low' end of the hall. All feudal houses conformed to this generic form. All had 'high' accommodation (domestic accommodation for the feudal baron and his family) and 'low' accommodation (service spaces) separated by a large hall, which is entered at right angles via a screen passage.

The keep at Warkworth Castle in Northumberland also conforms to the generic plan of the medieval house.

As feudal families became more prosperous, both ends of the house would be extended and the extensions used to form courtyards. Haddon Hall, Derbyshire, which was begun in the eleventh century, had a highly developed plan by the beginning of the sixteenth century. Courtyards, which formed protected space for outdoor activities, were a feature of the developed medieval house. The basic generic form was still at the centre of the house, however.

The Elizabethan Prodigy House was different. Montacute House in Somerset, 1580, has bi-axial symmetry, medieval transomed and mullioned windows, horizontal string courses, wallhead balustrade and Flemish details such as the wallhead gables. This mixture of the traditional and the 'new' is the characteristic of early English Renaissance architecture. The bi-axial symmetry of the plan of the house is not seen in the plan, which is traditional with a central hall entered from a screen passage. The house still has a 'high' end and a 'low' end. We see the significance of this when comparing it to an Italian Renaissance building such as Palladio's Villa Emo, in Fanzolo, of the late 1550s. The Villa Emo has a Classical plan with bi-axial symmetry, hierarchical organisation and room shapes determined by harmonic proportion. On the other hand, Montacute House has a traditional Medieval plan despite the bi-axial symmetry of its elevation.

Doddington Hall of Lincolnshire, 1593-1600, is another example of an Elizabethan house with a Classical exterior and a traditional medieval plan. Yet another is Barlborough Hall in Derbyshire, 1583-4.

Robert Smythson was commissioned to redesign Longleat House in Wiltshire. Previous to his changes, the plan of the house had a traditional medieval courtyard layout. Its arachitectural vocabulary is very similar to that used at Wollaton Hall, Nottinghamshire, 1580-88. The ornamentation os Wollaton is a mixture of classical and Flemish and there are characteristically English features such as the balustrade at the wall head. Its plan is interesting because the hall has been centred on the axis of symmetry. It is thought to have been derived from an original in Serlio and looks, for the first time in England, like a classical plan. It still has traditional features, however, such as the entry to the hall from the side through a screen passage. Also, the room shapes have not been determined harmonically. Its two great chambers are built in expectation of a Royal visit.

When it comes to Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire, 1590-7, the hall is now entered on the long axis. Virtually all traces of a feudal hall have now disappeared and the hall has become simply the entry space for the building. Doors at the end of the hall opposite the entrance (high end) lead to two separate apartments, one on the first floor and one on the second. The treatment of interior ornamentation such as the fireplace in the High Great Chamber is typical of the early Renaissance in England.

Biblipgraphy
Summerson, J., Architecture in Britain 1530-1830, Pelican History of Art, Harmondsworth, 9th edition, 1993.
Gotch, J. A., Early Renaissance Architecture in England, Batsford, London, 2nd edition, 1914.
Girouard, M., Life in the English Country House, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1980.
Girouard, M., Robert Smythson and the Elizabethan Country House, Yale University Press, 1983.

With Inigo Jones came the arrival of the truly Classical plan. He started out in the early seventeenth century as the designer of court masques. We see that he used a freehand style to design architecture, just as he had designed the court masques freehand. He came to design the Banqueting House at Whitehall in 1619, the year following his appointment as king's architect. The building is huge. It has a double cube ratio, is designed like a Roman basilica, has a tripatite vault with a pediment and is seen in green shotth.

Jones was much bolder in his use of the Classical language than Smythson, because he had been to Italy and was confident in his style. He even deliberately misuses architrave and pediment. Each of the Banqueting House windows is carefully contained, relieving tension that he had seen on Romano's house in Mantua. Jones did not merely imitate; he used his knowledge to create his own ideas and develop his own ingenuity.

The Queen's House at Greenwich, 1616-35, is a transformation of the Italian design. The interiior follows traditional ratios and geometry of cube rooms and a 1:1 ratio. The detail is stylised and rusticated. The interior plan is similar to Palladio's plan for the Villa Foscari in Malcontenta.

Houses began to be arranged in a formal square, setting the precedent for Georgian architecture. The buildings have not survived, but we can look at plans. Looking at Jones' design for reparing St Paul's Cathedral, there are pinpricks in the paper showing how he used specialist equipment to achieve precise measurements and ratios, just as Palladio, Alberti and the other Italian Renaissance architects had.

Bibliography
Summerson, J., Architecture in Britain 1530-1830, Pelican History of Art, 9th edition, 1992.
Summerson, J., Inigo Jones, Penguin Books, 1966, revised edition, Yale University Press, 2000.
Harris, J. and Higgot, G., Inigo Jones: Complete Architectural Drawings, Exhibition Catalogue, Royal Academy, London, 1989.
Harris, J., Orgel, S. and Strong, R., The King's Arcadia: Inigo Jones and the Stuart Court, Catalogue of exhibition held at the Banqueting House, Whitehall, London, Arts Council of Great Britian, 1973.