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THE BROCHURE SERIES The Work of Sir Christopher Wren NOVEMBER, 1900 |
| PLATE LXXXIII | ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL: LONDON |
THE | ||
| 1900. | NOVEMBER | No. 11. |
THE WORK OF
SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN.
During the reign of James I. the Renaissance style in England, which in Elizabeth's time had been mingled in picturesque combination with the Gothic, was further developed, losing year by year more of the Gothic features and becoming purer as the Classic models and literature became better known. The Anglo-Classic, or fully evolved English Renaissance style, arose only, however, with the advent of the celebrated Inigo Jones, who brought to his work the fruits of long study in Italy, and a thorough knowledge of the work of Palladio who was his master in design. During his life Jones' influence was paramount, and up to the time of the Commonwealth he had a practical monopoly of the architectural profession in England. His work was taken up where he left it by an architect on the whole, more remarkable—one of the most remarkable figures, indeed, that architecture has produced—Sir Christopher Wren, whose influence after the Restoration was even more complete than that of Jones had been before it. No building of importance was erected in England during the last forty years of the seventeenth century, of which Wren was not the architect. To Americans, moreover, Wren's work has an especial interest. Our own Colonial style, particularly in the architecture of churches, was in no slight degree based upon models which he originated, and he has not without justification been called the "father of the American Colonial style."