Inigo Jones The Architect of Kings Vaughan Hart

Inigo Jones (1573-1652) is widely acknowledged to have been England's most important architect. As court designer to the Stuart kings James I and Charles I, he is credited with introducing the classical language of architecture to the country. He famously travelled to Italy and studied firsthand the buildings of the Italian masters, particularly admiring those by Andrea Palladio. Much less well-known is the profound influence of native British arts and crafts on Jones' architecture. Likewise, his hostility to the more opulent forms of Italian architecture he saw on his travels has largely gone unnoted. This book examines both of these overlooked issues. Vaughan Hart identifies well-established links between the classical column and the crown prior to Jones, in early Stuart masques, processions, heraldry, paintings, and poems. He goes on to discuss Jones' preference for a 'masculine and unaffected' architecture, demonstrating that this plain style was consistent with the Puritan artistic sensitivities of Stuart England. For the first time, the work of Inigo Jones is understood in its national religious and political context.

Vaughan Hart is professor of architecture in the Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Bath University.

"Deeply researched, copiously illustrated and scholarly study of Jones, his contemporaries and his world... a fascinating and original study, deeply interesting and informative."—Robert Carver, The Tablet

"A beautifully produced book."—R. Malcolm Smuts, Journal of the Northern Renaissance

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