The Renaissance II:Britain in the Jacobean and Caroline Periods

Cultural History of Britain

Lecture 7

Timeline1603-25: Jacobean Period

1567-1603: James VI of Scotland1603: Union of Crowns (Scotland and England)1605, Nov 5: Guy Fawkes, Gunpowder Plot (Catholic Resistance)1611: King James’ Bible, the Authorised Version1620: Mayflower, Pilgrim Fathers (New England)

1625-42: Caroline Era1640-49 : Civil War1649-60: Commonwealth Interregnum

General feature: overlap/mixture of medieval (Gothic) and modern phenomena (belated Renaissance, Mannerism, Baroque, Humanism and Reformation, early Enlightenment and Neo-Classicism) in culture

Continental Context: the Advent of Baroque

(1590-1725)

General Features of BaroquePeriods:

C. 1590-1625: Early Baroque 1625-1660: High Baroque 1660-1725: Late Baroque

Historical and Cultural Context: Counter-Reformation, Re-Catholisation Council of Trent (1545-63): arts should communicate religious content in a direct

and highly emotional manner Associated with the expression of absolute power (church and secular)

Stylistic features: Highly decorated (wants to impress with decoration) Exaggerated motion (emotional involvement, drama, tension) Exuberant and clear detail Grandeur Focus on mass

Typical innovations: Architecture: the grand staircase, highly decorated interiors Literature: revival of the heroic epic (secondary epic, e.g. Tasso) Music and theatre: opera as a new genre

Major Baroque Artists and Works of Art on the Continent

PaintingCaravaggioBerniniVelazquezDutch Golden Age painting

Rubens Rembrandt

SculptureBernini

ArchitecturePalaces in Germany, Austria

and RussiaGarden plans

MusicMonteverdiVivaldiJohann Sebastian Bach

Jacobean Britain

Forerunners of Enlightenment: Francis Bacon (Lord Verulam, 1561-1626)

Modern turn in the history of philosophyThe Advancement of Learning (1605)Novum Organum (1620)Aristotelian and scholastic basis, but criticism of both

(approaching the world through abstract notions), rejection of deductions

Advocates empiricismTheology and sciences should be separated, natural sciences

should study the world through empirical methods (observation, experimentation)

Science: pragmatic and utopistic in purpose

James I: Court Patronage, Luxury and Witch TrialsPatronage

Court masquesBanqueting House

French models (Louis XIII) in luxury and patronagePersonal paranoia of murder and witchcraft

From 1590 c. 20 witch trials per year in Scotland (half found guilty and executed)

Treatise on witchcraft1604: new law on witchcraft, but James I’s obsession is rather an

embarrassment Features as a factor in the critique of the oppressor/conqueror in Walter

Scott’s IvanhoeCharles I: continues patronage, “imports” masters

Jacobean Theatre: the Decline of Renaissance Drama

Shakespeare stopped producing new plays c. 1610 and retired to Stratford-upon-Avon

Romantic tragicomedyFrancis Beaumont (1584-1616)John Fletcher (1579-1625)

Sex-and-crime plays passed off as tragedies (Senecan tradition)Thomas Dekker (1572-1632)John Webster (1580-1634)

Leading genre: satirical comedyBen Jonson (1572-37)James Shirley (1596-1666)

Court masques

Jacobean Court Masques: Expensive Royal Entertainment with Professional Assistance

Court masque Occasion for the queen

and ladies to dress up and dance

Mime Songs Spectacular costumes,

props and scenery Ben Jonson Inigo Jones

Surveyor-General of the King’s Works (1615-42)Designs by Inigo Jones: costume for the Queen

(Masque of Blackness, 1604), tribune (Masque of Queens, 1609)

Inigo Jones: an Anticipation of 18th Century Neo-Classicism

Jacobean architecture: continuation of and variation on the Elizabethan one

Typical building: country house (brick)

Hatfield House, south front (1605-12)

Inigo Jones (1573-1652) Professional architect as a new

phenomenon Buildings associated rather with the

architect than with the patron from this time

On equal footing with the patron Studies and travels on the Continent

(Italy, Renaissance) Break with the Jacobean tradition

(Renaissance elements only as decoration)

Palladian style (named so after 16th century Italian architect Palladio)

Principles of design in antique architecture

4 of his authenticated buildings survive, little influence in his lifetime

The Queen’s House, Greenwich (1616-19, 1630-5)

Banqueting House, Whitehall (1619-22)

The Queen’s Chapel (1623-8)

St. Paul’s Church (1631-3) at Covent Garden with Surrounding Piazza

Caroline Era

Painting: “Imported” BaroquePeter Paul Rubens (1577-1640)

Panels of the ceiling in the Banqueting House

Sir Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641)1632-41: Court PainterDisciple of TitianPortraits of the royal and

aristocratic familiesElegance, idealisation, absolute

power, genius in the use of colour, especially shimmering grays

End of career: mannerism

Architecture: Artisan Mannerism – The Country House Introduced by John Smythson,

architect to William CavendishModeled on the modern houses of

City merchants in London Involves Gothic features,

nostalgia for medieval times Introduces the “sham castle”Unique feature: columnar shafts

corbelled out of the wallEstablished as the country-house

style at the beginning of the Caroline Era

Music: Forerunners of Baroque1625: death of Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625)

Last musician of the Golden AgePolyphony, madrigals, lute songs

Foreign influencesWalter Porter (c.1588-1659)

Disciple of MonteverdiMovement towards harmony and orchestra

MasqueClosest thing in Britain to the typically Baroque opera

John Milton, Comus (1634)

Literature: Metaphysical PoetsMetaphysical conceitMajor representatives

John Donne (1572-1631) Poems published mostly after his

death

Andrew Marvell (1621-78)Minor figures

George HerbertRichard CrashawHenry Vaughn

Civil War and

Commonwealth Interregnum

Civil War and CommonwealthEnd of royal patronageEnd of poetic drama1642-60: theatrical

performances suspended, theatres closed

Puritan objection to elaborate church music (organ forbidden)

Oliver Cromwell, ‘warts and all’, miniature by Samuel Cooper

Works CitedBlamires, Harry. A History of Literary Criticism. London: Macmillan, 1991.

Gaunt, William. English Painting – A Concise History. London: Thames and Hudson, 1991.

Gelfert, Hans-Dieter: Nagy-Britannia rövid kultúrtörténete. Corvina, Budapest, 2005.

Habib, M. A. R. A History of Literary Criticism and Theory from Plato to the Present. London: Blackwell, 2008.

Halliday, F. E. An Illustrated Cultural History of England. London: Thames and Hudson, 1981.

Jenner, Michael. The Architectural Heritage of Britain and Ireland. Penguin: London, 1993.

Leitch, Vincent B., ed. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. New York, London: W. W. Norton, 2001.

Morgan, Kenneth O., ed. The Oxford History of Britain. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1984.

Tarnas, Richard. A nyugati gondolat stációi. Ford. Lázár A. Péter. Budapest: AduPrint, 1995.

Watkin, David. English Architecture. London: Thames and Hudson, 1992.