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Author Name: by Mark Girouard
Title: Robert Smythson and the Architecture of the Elizabethan Era by Mark Girouard
Binding: Hard Cover
Book Condition: Poor
Jacket Condition: Poor
Publisher: Barnes
Seller ID: 000007
Robert Smythson and the Architecture of the Elizabethan Era by Mark Girouard This is the first full-length study of Robert Smythson, who until now has been a shadowy figure among British architects. Indeed, in the Elizabethan era, at a time when Italian and French architects were comparatively well-known names in England even the word 'architect' was hardly ever used. Smythson himself, when he died in 1614, was probably called 'architector' of the first time on his tombstone. Yet, as Mark Girouard maintains, Robert Smythson was a major architect, 'a pioneer, a man of vigorous and enquiring mind. Without doubt one of the heroes of the national Elizabethan and Jacobean style, whose buildings, though largely confined to the Midlands and North of England, were known and admired in the South'. His particular monuments are Longleat in Wilshire (where his genius first became apparent in the 1570s) the 'splendid trinity' of Wollaton, Workshop and Hardwick in the middle years of his life, and a variety of lesser houses in his later years. Hardwick, built for the famous 'Bess of Hardwick', Countess of Shrewbury, remains today 'the supreme triumph of Elizabethan architecture'. and it is one of the better documented, as well as the best preserved, of Smythson's works. For many of the other houses, Mr. Girouard has often had to follow the faintest clues - but a trail that is equally exciting for the reader to follow. As a starting point of his investigations he had the large and fascinating collection of Smythson drawings, which passed by the way of Lord Byron's family to their present home at the Royal Institute of British Architects. In addition to showing us everything possible about Robert Smythson - and his son and grandson, John and Huntingdon, who were also architects. Mr Girourard fills in the architectural background of the period and describes Smythson's patrons, many of them extremely interesting figures in their own right, such as the formidable 'Bess of Hardwick' herself and other members of the Cavendish family; the unhappy Sir Francis Willoughby; the iron and coal magnate, Sir Stephen Proctor, and the rest. The many illustrations of houses and of Smythson's 'platts' or designs for them and other drawings, help to make this book a full and fascinating study of a man who though 'a rough diamond among architects', played a leading part in shaping the exciting architecture of the Elizabethan period." Hardcover with dust jacket, some wear on jacket Hardcover has some smudges on some of the pages otherwise in good shape (smudges look like flecks from printing), 232 pages,
Architecture Elizabethan Era
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