Jones, Inigo (ĭn`ĭgō'), 1573–1652, one of England's first great architects. Son of a London clothmaker, he was enabled to travel in Europe before 1603 to study paintings, perhaps at the expense of the earl of Rutland. On a second trip to Italy (1613–14) he thoroughly studied the remains of Roman architecture and the Renaissance buildings by Palladio. At the English courts of both James I and Charles I he designed settings for elaborate masques masque, courtly form of dramatic spectacle, popular in England in the first half of the 17th cent. The masque developed from the early 16th-century disguising, or mummery, in which disguised guests bearing presents would break into a festival and then join with their
..... Click the link for more information. , some of which he wrote. Besides performing various architectural services for the crown, he was also sponsored by the earl of Arundel. After renewed visits to Italy, Jones became (1615) king's surveyor of the works. In 1616 he began work on the Queen's House, Greenwich, the first English design to embody Palladian principles. He then built (1619–22) the royal Banqueting House in Whitehall, London, again adapting the classical proportions and use of architectural elements he had learned in Italy. He also made designs for St. Paul's church, Covent Garden, and its square (1631–38). He built other houses in London and in the country; especially outstanding is his advisory work on Wilton House, Wiltshire (built 1649–53). Making a clean break from the prevailing Jacobean style, he achieved a magnificent coherence of design. The work of Inigo Jones marked a starting point for the classical architecture of the late Renaissance and Georgian periods in England.

Bibliography

See study by S. Orgel and R. Strong (2 vol., 1973).

Jones, Inigo

(born July 15, 1573, Smithfield, London, Eng.—died June 21, 1652, London) British painter, architect, and designer. The son of a clothworker, he studied painting in Italy and attracted the patronage of the king of Denmark, for whom he apparently designed two palaces before returning to England. Beginning in 1605, he designed the scenes and costumes for masques by Ben Jonson and others. From 1615 to 1642, he was the King's Surveyor of Works. His first important undertaking was the Queen's House at Greenwich (begun 1616), England's first Palladian-style building. His greatest achievement, the Banqueting House at Whitehall (1619–22), consists of one great raised chamber with colonnades set against the walls, which support a flat, beamed ceiling. For his design for Covent Garden (1630), London's first square, Jones is credited with the introduction of town planning in England.