- Department: History of Art
- Module co-ordinator: Prof. Anthony Geraghty
- Credit value: 40 credits
- Credit level: H
- Academic year of delivery: 2022-23
This course explores the relationship between architecture and politics in England from 1603 to 1688.
Occurrence | Teaching period |
---|---|
A | Spring Term 2022-23 to Summer Term 2022-23 |
Seventeenth-century England has long been recognised as the stage upon which rival ideas of government, religion and authority strove to assert themselves. From these conflicts emerged the notions which shaped the early modern era and which still resonate with contemporary notions of nationhood and identity. England’s political course veered between ideologically opposed extremes. During the 1630s, England was ruled without a Parliament by the king’s direct authority, as exercised through his Ministers of State. The collapse of the regime and its policies unleashed the turmoil of successive Civil Wars, effectively concluded by Charles I’s trial and execution in 1649.
The new Commonwealth eventually found leadership under Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protector. After its disintegration after Cromwell’s death, the monarchy was restored in the person of Charles II. This act defined the following two decades (still known as the ‘Restoration’ period), which lasted until Charles’ brother, James II, was challenged by leading aristocrats on account of his pro-Catholic policies. This political circle invited the Protestant William of Orange to take the throne as joint-sovereign with Mary, sister to Charles and James.
Despite vast upheavals witnessed during the century, architecture was one means of demonstrating social status and visualising messages about ideological identity. What emerges consistently across this period is the gradual assimilation of a classically-inspired type of architecture, drawn from both written treatises and Continental visual exemplars. Two crucial figures in this process provide the linchpins for this module: Inigo Jones and Christopher Wren. These two architects’ separate careers raise not only questions of architectural design and patronage, but also the wider meanings behind questions of style, form, and the ways in which these may have been understood in seventeenth-century England.
By the end of the module students should have acquired:
Task | Length | % of module mark |
---|---|---|
Essay/coursework Assessed Essays: two 2,000 word essays |
N/A | 100 |
None
Task | Length | % of module mark |
---|---|---|
Essay/coursework Assessed Essays: two 2,000 word essays |
N/A | 100 |
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