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 architect, indeed, as a distinct individual, does not seem to
have arisen in those early days: the architect, that is, who not only
designed the plan and elevations of the building, but also the details
of its various parts and of its ornament. Inigo Jones may be taken as
the first Englishman who combined the functions of planner and designer
of details; previous to his time the work entailed in the designing of
a house was much subdivided, the plan and elevations being provided
by the surveyor, and each trade producing its own special details as
the work went on. Shakespeare only uses the word "architect" once, and
then not in connection with building operations. He gives us, however,
a sketch of how to set about building, in the Second Part of King Henry
IV. "When we mean to build," says Lord Bardolph, "we first survey the
plot, then draw the model; and when we see the figure of the house,
then must we rate the cost of the erection.... Much more in this great
work ... should we survey the plot of situation, and the model; consent
upon a sure foundation; question surveyors." It was the surveyors, such
as John Thorpe, who drew the model, which comprised the plans and an
elevation, or a perspective view indicating the treatment of more than
one front. These drawings were then carried out by the workmen on the
spot, who provided their own details. In some of the simpler buildings
no surveyor was employed, but rough plans were prepared by the builder
himself, not so much to work from, as to indicate, for the purpose
of a contract, the general extent and appearance of the building.
In others, again, no plans were used, but the work was set out on
the spot, and built to the requisite height under the supervision
of the master mason. It is almost certain that in some cases only
a plan was provided, without elevation; in the Thorpe collection a
large proportion of the plans have no elevation to correspond; and
Henry VII., in his will, orders his tomb to be placed in the midst of
his new chapel at Westminster according to "the plat [_i.e._, plan]
made for the same chapel and signed with our hand." At St. John's
College, Cambridge, the contractors who built the second court were
bound to erect it according to certain "platts and uprights" [_i.e._,
elevations], thus showing that the "plat" did not include elevations as
well as plan.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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