Architecture. Зайцева И.В. - 61 стр.

for Whitehall Palace ( 1638 ) and Queen’s Chapel ( 1623 ) in London introduced
English patrons to the prevailing architectural ideas of northern Italy in the late 16th-
architects such as Palladio, Serlio, and Vincenzo Scramozzi, Jones approached the
Baroque spirit in his works by unifying them with a refined compositional vigour.
Queen’s House is an Italian villa sympathetically reinterpreted. The upper floor loggia
is very Palladian, as is also the two-armed, curved open staircase to the terrace. The
proportions and the general effect are long and low and very un-Italian. It must have
required considerable courage on the part of the architect to break with established
tradition. It is small wonder that the influence of Inigo Jones was enormous despite the
scarcity of his recorded works. It is said that Inigo Jones is to architecture what
Shakespeare is to literature.
         The chief task of the architect is to create buildings of character; this implies
that the architect should be an artist as well as a deviser of construction. The true
greatness as an artist and constructor is revealed in the works of another famous
English architect Sir Christopher Wren.
         The period of Wren’s activity as an architect covers the last forty years of the
seventeenth century and extends for twenty years into eighteenth. Wren was born in
the quiet Wiltshire village of East Kroyle. He was the son of the rector who was late to
become Dean of Windsor. He was educated at Wensminster School and Wadham
College, Oxford. His genius was obvious even in childhood, though then it was turned
more to the problems of mathematics and astronomy.
         In 1657, when Wren was 25, he was appointed Professor of Astronomy at
Grasham College in London. His spectacular talents quickly came to notice of Charles
II and in 1660 Wren was appointed assistant to the Surveyor General. To tell the truth,
Wren never trained as an architect. His architectural career proper began under family
patronage. His uncle commissioned him to design a couple of buildings at Cambridge
( Pembroke College Chapel ) and Oxford ( Sheldonian Theatre ). They are moderately
successful and, at any rate, still stand. Wren’s interest in architecture was revealed
after his visit to Paris in 1665. On his return to England he was asked by the King to
produce plans for the restoration of old St. Paul’s which was in a state of decay. But
the Great Fire of 1666 put an end to the possibilities of restoring the old cathedral. The
Great Fire also gave Wren the opportunity to suggest two grandiose schemes: the
rebuilding of the entire commercial heart of London to a spacious master plan with
wide street, huge piazzas and long perspectives and the rebuilding of St.Paul’s. This
first scheme failed because of the powerful influence of speculators and the second
scheme was rejected by the church authorities as Wren suggested a Romanesque
church dominated by a large rotunda covered by a dome. He wanted to make the
cathedral in the shape of the so-called Greek cross with equal arms. This church would
be far from the standards of usual Gothic church with quire, nave and aisles in the
form of a cross with three short arms and one long arm. Wren was asked to make
another plan which would include these traditional elements. This second plan was
approved.
         By 1666 Christopher Wren was appointed Surveyor General. It took much
time of the architect. The colossal task of demolishing the old cathedral continued for
6 years. In November 1675 the rebuilding of St.Paul’s began. It was to go on for about
40 years.