The Art of Masonry in Britain by William Diack

Author:William Diack
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Offices of the Stone trades journal
Published: 1904-03-25T05:00:00+00:00

Socially, the new generation who succeeded the noblemen who fell in the Wars of the Roses were more susceptible to the newer intellectual movements that were beginning to make themselves felt on European life and thought. They desired, moreover, to establish for themselves larger and more commodious houses than those of their predecessors, for in those days the homes of the " country gentlemen," as distinct from the noblemen, were still sordid and of ill-repute. Henry VIII. and Edward VI. employed also part of the money which they appropriated from the monasteries in erecting and endowing various grammar schools and colleges. Now it so chanced, that while all this building was going on, there were in the court of the sovereign certain foreign artists and scholars who had come strongly under the influence of the Renaissance school. From these Continental artists and artisans the first faint glimmering of the new light of the Renaissance was shed on British architecture. Grecian architecture was gradually introduced, but until a purer taste was created, the classic features were intermixed promiscuously with those of the Gothic, producing sometimes a discordant and barbarous effect. Brunelleschi died in 1444, and Alberti in 1472, but it was nearly a century and a half after this before an architect arose in Britain who could justly be placed on a level with these famous Italian masters.

In Britain the growth of the newer art may be conveniently divided into three great stages. Firstly, the attempts of Italian artisans to introduce their own methods of workmanship. Secondly, the efforts of English workmen to emulate their Italian brethren, and influenced while so doing by Flemish and German masons. Thirdly, the mature art of the Renaissance, introduced by Inigo Jones, the English Palladio, as he

A.M. G

is sometimes termed. By his inherent genius, Jones so modified and adapted the style of the great Italian that it became, as has been said, " the foundation of all subsequent architecture in England for the next 200 years."

The foreign workmen were introduced into Britain by King Henry, and by Wolsey so early as 1515, when the latter leased Hampton Court and proceeded to erect it into a magnificent palace. The plainer branches of mason work were performed by Englishmen, but practically all the ornamentation was carved by Italians. Under Italian influence terra cotta was also largely used for building purposes for upwards of forty years — from 1500 to 1540. Amongst the more famous workmen brought over from Italy at that time were Holbein, Torrigiano, and the famous John of Padua. Pietro Torrigiano was, it is said, at one time the rival of Michael Angelo. One day, however, he resented the preeminence of his rival by a hasty blow, for which, as some aver, he was expelled from Florence. In 1512 he came to England for the purpose of executing the gorgeous tomb of Henry VII. By an indenture dated 12th October, 1512, he bound himself to complete the tomb in the space of seven years. His reward was liberal.

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