It will therefore not be without interest to glance briefly at what is known of the more prominent men who were employed in producing the architecture that has been under consideration, and at the methods which prevailed of supplying designs.
Unfortunately, little detailed information has yet been obtained, or is obtainable, concerning these men, and what we do know about them is neither so full nor so clear as to have emerged entirely from the perplexing mists of controversy and to have attained the serene heights of incontrovertible fact. We know, for instance, that Henry VIII. employed many skilled foreign workmen, especially Italians. But very little work exists at this day which can be pointed out as theirs. We also know that early in the second half of the sixteenth century many Dutch artizans found refuge in England from the rigorous measures of Alva, that licences were given to various towns to receive them, and that a number of other towns petitioned to have strangers allotted to them: most of these towns were situated in the counties bordering on the sea in the East and South. But masons, joiners, and artificers in the other trades connected with building, do not seem to have been a large proportion of those immigrating.
The most interesting piece of foreign work, inasmuch as it was the first done by Italians in England, can, luckily, be identified in all important particulars, because the contract for it still exists. It was Henry VII.'s tomb, designed, and largely executed, by Torrigiano.[33] But beyond this tomb, and probably that of Margaret, the mother of Henry VII., and possibly that of Dr. Young in the Rolls Chapel, no English work of Torrigiano's is known. After him came Benedetto da Rovezzano, who partly executed an even more splendid tomb for Cardinal Wolsey, which was to have been placed in the specially erected chapel in St. George's Chapel, Windsor, but which Henry VIII. took to himself on the Cardinal's fall. Wolsey petitioned the King for his own figure—which was to have lain upon the tomb, and could hardly be expected to answer the same purpose for its new owner—and for such other parts as it might please the King to give him. But Henry retained the materials and proceeded to adapt them for his own monument, whereon he and his queen, Jane Seymour, were to have reposed. His queen, however, was soon replaced, and the tomb was still unfinished at his death, and was never carried to completion. Its metal parts were finally melted down by the Parliament Commissioners a hundred years later, but the marble sarcophagus lingered on, and was eventually removed to St. Paul's Cathedral in London, and utilized in the monument of Lord Nelson. Another Italian who was employed by Wolsey, and subsequently by Henry VIII., was Giovanni da Majano, whose name appears in accounts of the time as being paid for certain work; but the work itself has disappeared, except the terra-cotta roundels, containing busts of Roman emperors, built into the walls of Hampton Court. Toto del Nunziata was another skilful Italian whose name appears in accounts, and he is said by Vasari to have built Henry VIII.'s principal palace. This is generally considered to have been Nonesuch, in Surrey, of which there is nothing left, but which, as already stated, must have presented examples of most admirable work in the way of sculpture and painting.[34] Nicholas of Modena, described as a carver, also worked for Henry, and remained in England for some years after his death, but the work attributed to him is only conjectural. Indeed, the share taken by the Italians of Henry VIII.'s time in the design of English work, is still a matter of controversy to be waged by the learned, and has not yet descended to the more certain level of the text-book. What we do know is, that Torrigiano executed Henry VII.'s tomb under a contract, and that a few other Italians of eminence resided for longer or shorter periods in England, together with a considerable number of their compatriots of less distinction. These men must have exercised considerable influence upon their English companions, and although their own style of ornament did not become universal, they must have prepared the way for the general adoption of the other versions of Italian detail which marked the second half of the sixteenth century.
The same remarks apply to Holbein, although the designs which he executed for work in England are much more numerous than those of any of his contemporaries, and have been identified beyond doubt as his. That is to say, in addition to his pictures, a large number of his drawings remain, principally for articles of goldsmith's work; but the objects themselves have mostly disappeared. One of the largest of his drawings, however, is that of a wood chimney-piece, which, from the initials upon it, was intended for Henry VIII. Some architectural work has been attributed to Holbein, but only on conjecture. Amongst it may be mentioned two gateways at Whitehall, now removed; part of a front at Wilton, in Wiltshire, as well as a little garden-house there; and the splendid screen at King's College Chapel, Cambridge. But there is no actual evidence to connect him with these works, and we should be mistaken in regarding him in any way as an architect in the sense in which we understand the term.
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.
Such contracts as have been preserved relating to work of the sixteenth century, go to show either that the various tradesmen provided their own designs, or that they were to take some already executed work as a pattern. There were separate contracts for the separate trades, but most of them were with masons, joiners, and glaziers. The masons who built the second court at St. John's were to make the windows after the fashion of those in the court already built. The joiner who fitted up the chapel was to make his work like that in Jesus College and Pembroke Hall, "or better in every point." The joiner who executed the stalls and the fretwork of the ceiling in the chapel at Trinity College, was to make the stalls like those at King's College, while the frets, battens, and pendants of the ceiling were to be made "according to the pattern showed to the master and other of the said College for the said frets, battens, and pendants." The glazier who provided the windows of the hall and chapel at St. John's, was to make them of "good and able Normandy glass of colours and pictures as be in the glass windows within the College called Christ's College."
These contracts are useful because they state expressly the sources whence the design was to be taken; but where the work was not done by contract, such accounts as have been preserved point in the same direction. After the masons had finished the second court at St. John's, including the plastering of the walls and ceilings, there appears an entry in the accounts for the payment of one Cobb for "frettishing" the gallery and the great chamber—that is, for working the ornamental plaster ceiling; and another for the payment of the joiner for the wainscotting of the gallery and for the two chimney-pieces there. No mention is made of any particular design, and the presumption is that the workmen supplied their own. This presumption is stronger in the case of the panelling of the hall at Queen's College, where every item of cost appears, as well as the names of the various workmen employed.
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.