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Spring Study Series at The Merchant’s House – ‘An Age of Unbridled Optimism and Widening Horizons’ by Christopher Rogers
4 April 2023 @ 10:30 am – 12:30 pm
The return of King Charles II in 1660, and then after 1688 the arrival of the new monarch or William and Mary led to a new internationalism in English architecture. In France the adoption of the ‘Baroque’ as the favoured style of Louis XIV led to the construction of iconic buildings such as Versailles.
With renewed contact with the European courts, inevitably this new style crept into England. Furthermore events such as the Great Fire of London and growing income from colonial ventures led to increased patronage. The man of the moment proved to be Sir Christopher Wren, polymath and architect who was a profound stylistic influence in the latter decades of the 17th century.
Nicholas Hawksmoor, had worked with Wren and his own work, along with that of his collaborator, John Vanbrugh, led to some very spectacular buildings, of which Blenheim is the apogee. Sadly the flamboyant ‘English Baroque’ was short-lived and gave way to the dull Palladianism of the next century.