Inigo Jones and the European Classicist Tradition

In this groundbreaking volume, conventional assumptions about one of England’s greatest and most influential classical architects are turned on their head. Traditionally, Inigo Jones has been looked upon as an isolated, even old-fashioned, figure in European architecture, still espousing the Palladian ideals of the 16th century when European contemporaries were turning to the Baroque. Yet an investigation of contemporary European architecture and of Jones’s buildings belies this impression, demonstrating that Jones must be viewed in the context of a European-wide, early-17th-century classicist movement.
Giles Worsley examines the full range of Jones’s architecture, from humble stable to royal palace. Worsley shows that key motifs that have been seen as proof of Jones’s Palladian loyalties―particularly the Serliana, the portico, and the centrally planned villa―have a much older and deeper meaning as symbols of sovereignty. The book transforms our understanding not only of Inigo Jones but also of the architecture of his time.
Published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.