42 INCREASING KNOWLEDGE OF ART 



with his artistic ambitions, the Italianising of English architec- 

 ture would have been more rapid than it actually was. But his 

 time was occupied with sterner matters, and the huge palace at 

 Whitehall which he is said to have contemplated (and his 

 father before him, according to many writers), but of which the 

 true history will be presently outlined, never went further than 

 to be committed to paper. What he did do, however, was to 

 foster the seed which had been sown by his father, and which 

 bore fruit later in the century. 



The love of Charles for the fine arts was shared by many of 

 his court. Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, caused not only 

 the marbles which still bear his name, but many other fine 

 relics of antiquity, to be brought to England. Inigo Jones was 

 frequently employed by the nobility to purchase pictures and 

 other treasures, and to see them suitably displayed in the houses 

 they were to adorn. John Webb made it one of his claims to 

 consideration that he had been commissioned by the " great 

 nobility and eminent gentry " to acquire for them medals, statues, 

 and other works of art. 



Meanwhile, in the country generally, and outside the circle 

 influenced by Inigo Jones, the old habits still prevailed, and 

 many houses were built, including such important buildings 

 as Aston Hall, in Warwickshire, already mentioned, in which 

 the old arrangements of plan were retained, and all the old 

 devices for obtaining architectural effect were used mullioned 

 windows, steep or curved gables, large and lofty chimney- 

 stacks, turrets and bay-windows, with a strong infusion of 

 Italian detail in the form of cornices and pilasters ; just such 

 devices indeed as had been employed by John Smithson and 

 his contemporaries. 



When this is borne in mind, when it is remembered what 

 Smithson stands for, and that he lived until 1634 ; that Aston 

 Hall, where Jacobean methods were still paramount, was not 

 completed until 1635 ; it will be easier to grasp the significance 

 of Inigo Jones's Banqueting House at Whitehall (Fig. 22), de- 

 signed in 1619 and finished in 1622, in which there is no trace 

 of traditional English design, which in fact approaches nearer to 

 Italian models than any building of the seventeenth century. 

 No wonder, considering the goal at which all designers were 

 more or less aiming, that it was quoted as a masterpiece, 

 as the finest flower of modern architecture in England. This 



