Traveler's Guide to Art & Architecture: Architecture

Renaissance

1550-1650--While the Continent was experimenting with the Renaissance ideals of proportion, order, classical inspiration, and mathematical precision to create unified and balanced structures, England was still trundling along with the late Tudor Gothic Perpendicular style (the Tudor use of redbrick became a major feature of later Gothic revivals) in places such as Hampton Court Palace and Bath Abbey (great fan vaulting). It wasn't until the Elizabethan era that the Brits turned to the Renaissance style sweeping the Continent. England's greatest Renaissance architect, Inigo Jones (1573-1652), brought back from his Italian travels a fevered imagination full of the exactingly Classical theories of Palladianism, a style derived from the buildings and publications of Andrea Palladio (1508-80). However, most English architects at this time tempered the Renaissance style with a heavy dose of Gothic-like elements. Identifiable Features Sense of proportion. Reliance on symmetry. Use of classical orders. This specifies three different column capitals: Corinthian, Ionic, and Doric. Best Examples Robert Smythson (1535-1614). This early Elizabethan architect was responsible for two of the greatest mansions of the period: Hardwick Hall (1590-97) in Derbyshire, virtually abandoned and therefore wonderfully preserved (if a bit dilapidated) in its 16th-century condition; and Longleat House (1559-80), an elegant Wiltshire manse with a park designed by Renaissance landscape architect and garden designer Capability Brown. Inigo Jones (1573-1652). Jones applied his theories of Palladianism to such edifices as Queen's House (1616-18 and 1629-35) in Greenwich; the Queen's Chapel (1623-25) in St. James's Palace and the Banqueting House (1619-22) in Whitehall, both in London; and the staterooms of Wiltshire's Wilton House (1603), where Shakespeare performed and D-Day was planned. Recently, London's Shakespeare's Globe Theatre dusted off one of his never-realized plans and used it to construct their new indoor theater annex.

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