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
It is interesting to see how the names of the workmen gradually
changed. The first entry is on the last day of September, 1531,
when Matthew Blunt and Robert Cave were paid for "working on the
panelling of the College hall." In November they are joined by one
Dyrik Harrison, who does the same kind of work; in December, one
Lambert comes, and Matthew Blunt disappears; a few days afterwards
a certain Arnold joins them, and subsequently a Peter. In January,
Giles Fambeler, carver, is paid for nine capitals, and in February for
thirteen more, and he then disappears. But his place seems to have been
taken by Dyrik Harrison, who thenceforward is paid, not for ordinary
joiner's work, but for carving capitals, shields, arms, and lines of
"antique crest" and "antique border," up to the middle of July, when
he receives his final payment "by order of the President." In the
meantime Robert Cave's name has ceased to be entered, but Arnold,
Lambert, and Peter still continue. After Harrison's departure Lambert
seems to have done the special work, since in August he gets paid for
certain columns and for the "extreme parts of the cresting." His is the
last name of the joiners which appears, and in September the work was
finished. It would almost seem as though Giles Fambeler, whose name
looks anything but English, had been employed for some two months, just
to show how the new carving should be done, and that from him Dyrik
Harrison, whose Christian name suggests a Dutch connection, picked up a
knowledge of the fashionable ornament sufficient to enable him to take
Giles's place; and that Lambert in his turn succeeded Harrison. Even if
this supposition is larger than the facts warrant, it must have been in
some such manner as this that the new forms were disseminated through
the country. It is worthy of note that the joiner employed at Hengrave,
in 1538, six years after this work at Queen's, was named Dyrik, and
it is pleasant to imagine (Hengrave being some five-and-twenty miles
from Cambridge) that it might have been the same Dyrik Harrison who had
picked up his first knowledge from Giles Fambeler.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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