User:Joopercoopers/Queen's House

North façade of the Queen's House, Greenwich

The Queen's House, Greenwich is one of the most important buildings in British architectural history, being the first consciously classical building to have been constructed in Britain. It was designed and begun in 1614-1617 by architect Inigo Jones, early in his architectural career, for Anne of Denmark, the queen of King James I of England and was altered and completed by Jones, in a second campaign about 1635 for Henrietta Maria, queen of King Charles I.

The Queen's House was Jones's first major commission after returning from his 1613-1615 grand tour of Roman, Renaissance and Palladian architecture in Italy. Some earlier English buildings, such as Longleat, had made borrowings from the classical style; but these were restricted to small details and were not applied in a systematic way. Nor was the form of these buildings informed by an understanding of classical precedents. The Queen's House would have appeared revolutionary to English eyes in its day. Jones is credited with the introduction of Palladianism to the British Isles with the construction of the Queen's House. Although it diverges from the mathematical constraints of Palladio and it is likely that the immediate precedent for the H shaped plan, straddling a road is the Villa Medici at Poggio a Caiano by Giuliano da Sangallo. Today it is both a grade I listed building and a Scheduled ancient monument a status which includes the 115 foot wide, axial vista to the River Thames.

Site history

• Park, deer, road

Flemish School, View of Greenwich c.1626-8

The apparent controlled elegance and harmony of the current site, with the long vista from the Queen's House flanked by the baroque Greenwich Royal Naval College to the north, and Observatory Hill to the south; belies a complex and august history. The earliest evidence of occupation of the site was left by the Romans, who constructed a small shrine overlooking the Thames. Even then, Greenwich lay at an important confluence of two major trade routes, one being the river itself, the other a major road which linked London with Canterbury and Dover (The present A2). In the 6th century AD the Anglo-Saxons constructed burial mounds to the south west of what is now the Royal Observatory. Both of these fragmentary discoveries are evidence of a land use pattern, the details of which are now unfortunately lost in time. The current park boundaries are a largely late medieval creation although there is some evidence that it may have formed a recognisable estate from the 8th century onwards. Today the park comprises 190 acres. The site has seen some of the most important buildings in England constructed within its walls, being at various times, the Principle Royal Palace for two centuries, the site of the Royal Observatory, and the symbolic home of the Royal Navy in London.

The park was enclosed in 1433, and a building which would later be subsumed by the Royal Palace of Placentia was constructed by the banks of the Thames by 1447. The Palace stood in place of what is now the Naval College. It was the birth-place of King Henry VIII in 1491, Mary Tudor in 1516 and Elizabeth I in 1533. To the south of the palace, the land rises up to Observatory Hill and here the medieval park, surrounded by a timber pale, enclosed a rich park of 'pasture, wood, gorse, virses and gorse' ideal for keeping deer. Foreign ambassadors where often entertained at Greenwich and it was common for their Tudor hosts to entertain them with formal processions through the palace ground and park.

Central to the subsequent development of the Queen's House was the Dover Road which bisected the park running east-west and later formed the southern boundary of the Palace, separating it from the park.

Inigo Jones, the early years

Portrait of Inigo Jones painted by Sir Anthony van Dyck in 1632-33

Inigo Jones rose from humble beginnings as the son of a cloth worker to become the court arbiter of taste for the King and Queen of England. Little is know of his youth, but in 1603 he visited Italy, and so impressed King Christian IV of Denmark and Norway with his talents for painting and design as to receive employment in his court for a time. Christian's sister was Anne, the queen of James I of England, and it is likely that having now elevated himself to the attention of courts, on his return to England Jones, could utilise his talents and connections to further his career.

How did classicism come to the uk? Who brought it? Why was it adopted by the court? What part of the thinking of the time did it represent?

• Basic background
• First tour of Italy - buys his copy of I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura
• Grand Tour - meeting with Vincenzo Scamozzi and visits most of the works in the Quattro
• Ascent in the ranks

A curious device

• Masques and the theatre
• Palladianism not in splendid isolation and purity per Colen Campbell, but in changing contexts.
• Construction of the first phase.
• Anne's character and taste?

Construction second phase

Henrietta's character and taste.

The Queen's house today

Gallery

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  Greenwich Hospital from the North, c.1753 by Canaletto
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• File:Queens house observatory hill.jpg
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References

• http://www.britannica.com/shakespeare/print?articleId=43933&fullArticle=true&tocId=3745
• http://www.shafe.co.uk/art/early_stuart_12_-_inigo_jones_2.asp
• John Bold, Greenwich: An Architectural History of the Royal Hospital for Seamen and the Queen's House (Yales University Press) 2000, ISBN 978-0300083972
• Howarth, W:Greenwich Past and Present, London, 1886