Inigo Jones is the architect for the …

Years: 1617 - 1617

Inigo Jones is the architect for the Queen's House, Greenwich, a royal residence built for Anne of Denmark, the queen of King James I of England, between 1614-1617 in Greenwich, a few miles downriver from London.

One of the most important buildings in British architectural history, being the first consciously classical building to have been constructed in Britain, it is Jones's first major commission after returning from his 1613-1615 grand tour of Roman, Renaissance and Palladian architecture in Italy.

Some earlier English buildings, such as Longleat, had made borrowings from the classical style; but these were restricted to small details and were not applied in a systematic way.

Nor was the form of these buildings informed by an understanding of classical precedents.

The Queen's House would have appeared revolutionary to English eyes in its day.

Jones is credited with the introduction of Palladianism with the construction of the Queen's House.

Although it diverges from the mathematical constraints of Palladio and it is likely that the immediate precedent for the H-shaped plan, straddling a road, is the Villa Medici at Poggio a Caiano by Giuliano da Sangallo.

The Queen's House, Greenwich (Photo by Bill Bertram, 2006)

The Queen's House, Greenwich (Photo by Bill Bertram, 2006)

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