SO KENT'S "DESIGNS OF INIGO JONES" 



These drawings were unknown to the public until Kent pub- 

 lished the "Designs" in 1727. His two volumes comprise, as 

 already mentioned, the designs of Whitehall Palace, and a series 

 of houses, large and small. It was not until they were published 

 that the public generally knew anything about them, and it was 

 accordingly not till then that they affected architectural design. 

 Walpole makes this quite clear : " It was in this reign," he says 

 that of George II. "that architecture resumed all her rights. 

 Noble publications of Palladio, Jones, and the antique recalled 

 her to true principles and correct taste ; she found men of genius 

 to execute her rules, and patrons to countenance their labours." 1 



But apart from their effect upon the public, the insight which 

 these drawings give into the inner working of the designers' 

 rninds is of great interest. Besides the finished drawings there 

 are innumerable sketches for plans, elevations, and details, as 

 well as many scraps copied from Italian books on architecture, 

 notably from Serlio. Comparing these and Jones's own sketches 

 with similar memoranda and sketches by Italian architects of 

 the period, it is curious to find how thoroughly he adopted their 

 particular methods of work, and after him Webb likewise. 

 Everything is classic in style, all the proportions are carefully- 

 worked out. The lengths and heights of buildings are not the 

 result of caprice, or chance, or even primarily of convenience, 

 but of systems of proportion. So also in the plans : these are 

 largely adaptations of Italian models, not only in their formality 

 and symmetry, but also in the disposition of the rooms. There 

 is nothing haphazard, fortuitous, or rambling about them : they 

 are the result of carefully considered proportion. Every house 

 was complete in itself, and to be altered or enlarged afterwards 

 was to be spoilt. 



This sort of precision had a natural tendency to become 

 mechanical, and in later years, notably in the early part of the 

 eighteenth century, the tendency asserted itself strongly. But 

 it is interesting to find that the foibles of Campbell, Gibbs, and 

 their contemporaries had their justification in the work of Jones 

 and Webb. 



It was more particularly Webb who founded himself so 

 carefully on definite proportions. Jones had a natural instinct 

 for good proportion. His studies of the human figure and of 

 drapery, his construction of scenery for masques, gave him 

 freedom of touch and sureness in achieving the result at which 

 1 Horace Walpole's "Anecdotes of Painting/' 



