Early Renaissance Architecture in England: A Historical & Descriptive Account of the Tudor, Elizabethan, & Jacobean Periods, 1500-1625Gotch, J. Alfred (John Alfred)
History
Early Renaissance Architecture in England: A Historical & Descriptive Account of the Tudor, Elizabethan, & Jacobean Periods, 1500-1625
The last plan of the series is that of a house for "Sir Jo. Danvers,
Chelsey" (Figs. 227, 228), and there are two points to be specially
noticed in it--one is that the kitchen and its offices are all
underground, the other is that the hall is of the type usual in many
Italian houses; it extends right through the house from front to back,
and has smaller rooms opening from it on each side. In Italy, the
hall and the room over it occupy the whole of this space, and the
staircase is among the rooms at the side, but at Sir John Danvers'
house the staircase is in the hall itself, thus dividing it into two
portions, the outer one of which is named "waste hall," and curtailing
the effective space of the chamber over it. The device of placing the
kitchen and offices in a basement was not often adopted in English
houses; space was generally plentiful, and the native taste was rather
in favour of the long and low treatment. But occasionally, where space
was limited, or where some special notion controlled the design, as
at Lyveden New Building, or where the Italian manner was closely
followed, the basement was utilized for the purpose of the kitchens.
The sketch-elevation of Sir John Danvers' house points towards a more
complete acceptance of classic treatment; it is widely different from
the extensive façades and returned wings which are associated with the
idea of an Elizabethan or Jacobean house. Sir John built a house (but
whether to this particular plan, or not, is not certain) at Chelsea,
on the site of one which had been the residence of Sir Thomas More;
and he seems to have done so in the early years of the seventeenth
century. It is more than likely that he was attracted by the Italian
model, since we learn from Aubrey[32] that "'twas Sir John Danvers of
Chelsey who first taught us the way of Italian gardens. He had well
travelled France and Italy, and made good observations.... He had a
very fine fancy, which lay chiefly for gardens and architecture." There
is another rough sketch of an elevation on page 178, accompanied by a
plan, where the Italian treatment is still more marked. The centre of
the façade consists of two rows of columns, superimposed, and forming
an open _loggia_ on each floor; they carry a pediment of flat pitch.
This sketch is of considerable interest, since it connects Thorpe, who
is the representative of Elizabethan and Jacobean design, with the far
more Italianized style of his successors.
[32] John Aubrey's _Natural History of Wiltshire_.
[Illustration: 228.--SIR JO. DANVERS, CHELSEY. UPPER PLAN AND
ELEVATION (PAGES 21, 22)..]
[Illustration: 229.--AN UN-NAMED ELEVATION, "MENT FOR ONE OF THE
SYDES OF A HOUSE ABOUT A CORT AND MAY BE MADE A FRONT FOR A HOUSE"
(PAGE 115).]
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