ENGLISH RENASCENCE

The Renascence commenced in England in the early part of the 16th century, about a hundred years later than that in Florence. The first important work was the tomb of John Young, in terra cotta, originally in the Rolls’ Chapel, now in the Record Office Museum, Chancery Lane, completed in 1516 by Pietro Torrigiano, who also executed the fine tomb of Henry VII. (1512-18) in Westminster Abbey. This consists of a rectangular sarcophagus of black marble, on which rest the bronze effigies of the king and his consort. On the sarcophagus are gilded bronze pilasters and circular panels in relief, surrounded with wreaths of black marble (plate 38). The tomb of Margaret, Countess of Richmond, and the high altar and baldachino of black and white marble in the Abbey are also by Torrigiano.

Contemporary with Torrigiano was Benedetto da Rovezzano, of Florence, who was commissioned by Cardinal Wolsey, in 1520, to make a sarcophagus of black touchstone, with a recumbent figure of Wolsey in bronze. On the Cardinal’s fall, Henry VIII. commissioned Rovezzano to alter and elaborate the work ; but it was left incomplete, and in 1646 the bronze was sold, and the sarcophagus became the resting-place of Nelson in 1806, and is now in S. Paul’s Cathedral. Another Florentine, Giovanni di Majano, modelled some terra-cotta medallions for Wolsey at Hampton Court (1521).

In the work of Hans Holbein (plate 38) the Italian feeling is still retained, showing but little of the Gothic tradition ; but in the middle of the century there came a marked change in the ornamental details, the cartouche and strap work, features common to the developed French, Flemish, and German Renascence becoming a pronounced feature of the English Renascence (plate 38).

A typical early Tudor house consisted of a series of rooms placed irregularly round an open court having an entrance gateway flanked by octagonal towers ; the principal room was the lofty hall with its screen and traceried windows. Oxburgh Hall, Norfolk (1482) and Hengrave Hall, Suffolk (1538), are representative of these Tudor houses.

The famous Elizabethan and Jacobean manor-houses are characterized by regularity and symmetry in plan and elevation. The chief buildings of the Elizabethan period are Charlecote (1558), Longleat (1567), Kirby Hall (1570-75), Montacute House (1580), Wollaton Hall (1580-88), and Hardwick Hall (1597). Of the Jacobean period there are Holland House (1607), Hatfield (1611), Audley End (1615), Aston Hall (1620), and Blickling Hall (1620), with their long galleries and rectangular mullioned windows—characteristic features of the Elizabethan and Jacobean period. There are magnificent circular bay windows at Kirby Hall, Burton Agnes (1602-10), and Lilford Hall (1635), and fine octagonal bays at Astley Hall.

Plate 40

Plate 41

John Thorpe, whose drawings are dated 1570-1621, and Robert Smithson with drawings 1599-1631, are the chief names associated with architectural documents of this period.

Some beautiful ceilings, consisting of geometrical panelling fan-tracery, and pendentives, were similar to wood and stone ceilings of the late Gothic period. These richly-moulded pendentives were connected together with moulded ribs. The ribs frequently had a repeating pattern impressed while the plaster was soft (plate 39). Occasionally a double frieze was used, the lower having delicate arabesques and strap-work, while the upper one had boldly-marked cartouches and arabesques. One of the most important examples of early Renascence plaster is the frieze in the presence chamber, Hardwick Hall. It is decorated with hunting subjects, as Diana and her train, surrounded with forest foliage. This frieze is II ft. in height, modelled in low relief, and coloured in tempera.

Inigo Jones introduced the purely Italian Renascence. He was known from 1604-30 as the designer for the elaborate scenery for the brilliant masques by Ben Johnson that were performed by the nobles and court of that period. In 1622 Inigo Jones completed the Banqueting House, Whitehall, the only portion of his great design which was carried out. He also designed the Water Gate, York House, executed by his favourite carver, Nicholas Stone; the Queen’s House, Greenwich; and the great room at Wilton, with its fine mantelpiece and panelling.

The ornament of Inigo Jones is excellent in proportion, and Italian in type. The decoration of the panels and friezes consisted of boldly designed festoons, masks, and shields. The plaster ceilings have large rectangular, circular, or oval panels, with massive moulded ribs enriched with classical detail or with fruit or flowers in relief.

In the work of Wren, which followed, the details are less refined in type, being largely under the influence of realistic ornament and the Dutch School (plate 41).

The era of church building began with Sir Christopher Wren in 1666, after the great fire of London, in which old S. Paul’s, ninety-three parish churches and chapels, the Exchange, the Guildhall, and fifty of the City Companies’ halls were destroyed. S. Mary le Bow (1680), S. Bride’s (1680), S. Clement Dane (1684), and S. Stephen’s, Walbrook, illustrate some of the typical features of the fifty-one parochial churches that he designed, and his masterpiece, S. Paul’s (1675-1710), is a noble example of English Renascence (plan, plate 85). Wren also built portions of Hampton Court and Greenwich Hospital. Nicholas Hawksmoor, a pupil of Wren, built S. George’s-in-the-East (1723), Spitalfields Church (1729), and S. George’s, Bloomsbury (1730). Castle Howard (1714) and Blenheim Palace are by Sir John Vanbrugh; S. Philip, Birmingham (1710), by Archer; Burlington House (1717) by Campbell, who also brought out his great work on English architecture, “Vitruvius Britannicus ” (Vol. I., 1715, Vol. II., 1717, Vol. III., 1725, while Vols. IV. and V. were issued by Woolfe and Gandon in 1767). This book gives introductory descriptions, with plans, elevations, and sections of the chief English buildings erected between 1600-1750. The Horse Guards (1742), Holkham (1734), and Devonshire House (1734) were designed by William Kent. S. Mary-le-Strand (1717), S. Martin’s (1721), The Senate House, Cambridge (1730), and the Radcliffe Library, Oxford (1747) were by James Gibbs.

Plate 42

Plate 43

Somerset House (1776), by Sir William Chambers, is a typical example of late 18th century classic ; accurate in proportion, with refined details and excellent workmanship and materials. Chambers published his “Decorative Part of Civil Architecture ” in 1759.

Other architects of this period were George Dance, the elder, who built the Mansion House, completed in 1753; Paine, Carr of York, Gandon, Dance the younger, and Robert and James Adam, who designed and built the Adelphi (1768) and many streets and mansions in London and Edinburgh. Robert Adam also designed many accessories, such as console tables and candelabra, and on the ceilings, pilasters, and panels were composition enrichments (plates 42 and 43).

Of modern Renascence, the Wellington Monument in S. Paul’s Cathedral, by Alfred Stevens, is distinguished by its strong personality and architectonic treatment of composition, and the beauty and singular grace of its details.

TWO ORNAMENTAL PANELS FOR PAINTING, STUCCO, OR CARVING, BY MATTHEW DARLY.