Jones, Inigo 1573–1652 English Architect and Designer

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Jones, Inigo 1573–1652 English architect and designer

One of the most important designers of Renaissance England, Inigo Jones served as court architect to the Stuart kings. He developed a unique building style based on the classical* principles of the Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio. Jones's work paved the way for the architecture of the late English Renaissance.

After early training as a painter, Jones worked at St. Paul's Cathedral as an apprentice woodworker. In the summer of 1603, he went to Denmark and prepared designs for the Danish king Christian IV. After returning to England in 1604, Jones worked for Queen Anne, the wife of James I, creating stage settings for court masques*.

In 1610 Henry, the Prince of Wales, hired Jones to redesign the royal garden at Richmond based on Renaissance principles. Three years later, Jones traveled to Heidelberg, Germany, to attend the wedding of James I's daughter, Elizabeth. He then went to Italy, where he studied Roman ruins and the works of Palladio. When Jones returned to England, he received a commission from Thomas Howard, earl of Arundel, to remodel the earl's home and to create a gallery to house his collection of ancient statues.

In 1615 James I employed Jones to redesign London, to make it an ideal city and a fitting capital for the Stuart dynasty. In his plans for London, Jones followed all'antica (in the antique manner) principles to create a grand Renaissance style. He planned to place buildings in this style at significant points in the city, echoing the renovation of Rome undertaken by Pope Sixtus V in the 1580s. A few years later, the king instructed Jones to survey the ancient ruins of Stonehenge, looking for links to Britain's heroic past. The architect later claimed that the underlying harmony of the design of Stonehenge was proof of England's Roman ancestry.

Jones designed a number of important buildings for the Stuarts, including the queen's house at Greenwich and a new Star Chamber and Banqueting House at Whitehall Palace. The Banqueting House, one of Jones's most famous buildings, included movable scenery for performances of court masques. In the design for Whitehall, Jones tried to show the power and magnificence of the Stuarts and to create a structure that would rival the great palaces of France and Spain. The full project remained a fantasy, however, as most of what Jones planned for Whitehall was never built.

In 1633 Jones began renovating St. Paul's Cathedral in London. He resurfaced the interior walls with all'antica ornamentation and added a giant classical portico* to the west front of the building. However, with the outbreak of the English Civil War in 1642, work on the cathedral was abandoned just as Jones's career was drawing to a close.

(See alsoArt in Britain; London; Palaces and Townhouses; Theaters. )