Inigo Jones, 1573 - 1652 (Ignatii Iones Mag: Brit: Architecti Generalis Vera Effigies)

(Updated, November 2019) Portrait of Inigo Jones by Hollar, after a drawing by Van Dyck now in the Duke of Devonshire's collection at Chatsworth. The drawing shows Jones in the same aspect, facing right, but Robert van Voerst's 1635 print from it reverses this, so it is possible that Hollar copied (again in reverse) from van Voerst rather than the original. Van Dyck also painted Jones facing right in oil, also just head and shoulders but without his hand or the paper included here. This painting (which was also later engraved twice) is now in the Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg.

Inigo Jones was celebrated as a designer of entertainments for the courts of James I and Charles I but his posthumous reputation is based on his architectural work. He was one of the first Englishmen to make a detailed study of the buildings of ancient Rome and of the works of the Italian Renaissance architects, particularly Andrea Palladio. Having been Surveyor to Henry, Prince of Wales, 1610-12, he became Surveyor-General to his father, James I, in 1615 and (from 1625) to Charles I. Jones introduced into England a rigorous interpretation of the classical language of architecture, including the hierarchical use of the architectural orders and their attendant details arranged through the appropriate use of number, measure and proportion. His influence was curtailed by the English Civil War (1642-49) but he enjoyed a great revival among Palladian architects of the 18th century. Of his own work, the Queen's House at Greenwich and the Banqueting House, Whitehall, are the major surviving examples.

Object Details

ID: PAD6951
Type: Print
Display location: Not on display
Creator: Hollar, Wenceslaus; Dyck, Anthony van
Date made: 1655
People: Jones, Inigo
Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London
Measurements: Mount: 205 mm x 139 mm