The architecture of England in the seventeenth century properly called Renaissance only by extension of the term--Jones and Wren the only architects of importance at this time--Walpole’s extravagant estimate of Inigo Jones--The early career of Jones--His design for the Banqueting Hall of the palace of Whitehall--Its lack of English character--Analysis of the design--Kent’s exaggerated estimate of Jones’s genius--The scheme for the whole palace--Jones’s design for the façade of old St. Paul’s--Thoughtless laudation of the art of Inigo Jones--Sir Christopher Wren--Artistic notions of the English dilettanti in the seventeenth century--Wren’s architectural training--His visit to France--The Sheldonian Theatre--Wren’s project for repairs of old St. Paul’s--His commission to rebuild--His first scheme for the new edifice--Sources of inspiration for the great dome--Rejection of the first scheme--The so-called warrant design--The existing edifice--The structural system of the dome--Character of the interior of the church--The masking of the buttress system--Wren’s city churches 226 CHAPTER XV CONCLUSION The architecture of the Renaissance not based on consistent principles--Incorrectness of the notion that the Renaissance aberrations in the use of the orders was but a free adaptation of the old elements to new conditions--The ancient architectural forms do not lend themselves to new conditions--Adaptation involves creative changes which wholly transform original elements--Influence of the writings of Vignola and Palladio in recent times--Modern recognition of the arbitrary character of the rules of the formalists--Genuine works of art not produced from rules--A juster sense of the real character of the architecture of the Renaissance shown by a few recent writers 247 ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT PAGE