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
In such matters as tombs it is beyond question that the workmen
supplied the designs. In the year 1525 there is an entry in the
accounts of St. John's of a small sum "given to the master mason of Ely
for drawing a draught for my lord's tomb," meaning Bishop Fisher's. In
1533 "Mr. Lee the free mason" was paid for making and setting up the
tomb. Upon the Bishop's execution, the monument was taken to pieces
and thrown aside, but towards the end of last century the remains were
discovered during the process of clearing away the rubbish in an "old
disused chapel." A rough drawing was made of them, from which it is
evident that the design was quite in the Italian style. It shows an
altar tomb with a pilaster at each corner, ornamented with arabesques
similar to those on Henry VII.'s tomb. The side is occupied by a
large panel supported by two amorini, and surrounded with foliage and
scrollwork; the end has a shield within a garland. The whole work is
described by an eye-witness as being elegant, neat, and ornamented in
great taste, from which we may gather that both in design and execution
it was a worthy specimen of the style prevalent in Henry VIII.'s time.
We have already seen that it was designed by the master mason at Ely,
and executed by Mr. Lee, the free mason. If these two were not one and
the same man, at any rate there is no reason to suppose that they were
other than Englishmen.[35]
[35] For particulars of these contracts, &c., at Cambridge, see Willis
and Clark's _Architectural History of the University of Cambridge_,
Vol. II.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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