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After
last week’s insightful episode which gave audiences a
glimpse into the Tudor buildings which used to, and some of
which still do, dominate our landscapes, such as the White Tower at
the Tower of London, Hampton Court and Nonsuch Palace, in the
next episode historian Dan Cruickshank takes viewers through
the classical architecture movement which began to occur in the
seventeenth century.
In the second episode of the series, called Inventing a
National Style, Cruickshank highlights how this new style
of Roman architecture initially began with the household name
Indigo Jones, who created the masterpiece that is the banqueting
hall for James I at the Palace of Whitehall. Cruickshank highlights
how monarchical propaganda and the divine right of
kings became a fundamental influence over the style of
palace architecture in this turbulent century, and continued to
influence style in centuries to come.
Cruickshank presents the idea that although the detailed and
symbolic ceiling artwork by Rubens that hangs above visitors of the
Banqueting House may have begun as a piece of Stuart propaganda,
later on it ironically became the setting of Charles I’s
beheading as he took to a scaffold erected outside of the palace in
1649.
Cruickshank also looks at how palaces, such as Buckingham, Kew
and Kensington, also became the homes of our
monarchs, rather than simply places for our Kings and Queens to
live and rule from. Cruickshank also meets with Lee Prosser
from Historic Royal Palaces, who explains the innovative technology
and craftsmanship that Sir Christopher Wren used at the time to
build Kensington Palace.
Inventing a National Style will be broadcasted on BBC
Four at 9pm on Wednesday 25th June. It will then be available to
view online soon after. This episode was directed and produced by
Edmund Moriarty.
Featured photo credit: BBC/Historic Royal Palaces.
Article photo credit: BBC/Christian Stacey]]>
