Sir John Vanbrugh Overview

Sir John Vanbrugh approached everything he did with audacity. The fact that he shifted in midlife from literature to architecture is proof enough of this boldness. But the plays were in themselves daring and controversial, while the architecture challenged the norms of the day. Clearly, it was not merely Vanbrugh's genius that allowed him to accomplish what he did, but his confidence. He tackled every project with a zest that allowed him to push beyond the limits that more formal stylists liked to obey. After an early career as a foot soldier, Vanbrugh penned his first play, "The Relapse: Or Virtue in Danger" (1696), as a sequel to Colley Cibber's "Love's Last Shift." A year later he followed with "The Provok'ed Wife." Both were robust, ebullient comedies, full of satire, caricatures, and bombast. Audiences were delighted, but in 1698 Jeremy Collier attacked the immorality of the theater in an essay that named the plays of Vanbrugh among the worst offenders. Vanbrugh launched a brief but unsuccessful retaliation and then remained silent for two years. When he returned to writing, he limited himself to a series of French adaptations, including "The Country House" and "The Confederacy," which tended more towards outright farce than social satire. It was in 1702 that Vanburgh turned towards architecture. Though almost completely untrained, he was chosen by Lord Carlisle to design Castle Howard in Yorkshire. Vanbrugh's innovative ideas, undoubtedly the sign of a newcomer to the field, were made practicable by his partner in the commission, Nicholas Hawksmoor (formerly the clerk of the great architect Sir Christopher Wren). Together, Vanbrugh and Hawksmoor designed a structure that epitomized the English Baroque. Their castle brought together elements from Roman, Egyptian, and Medieval architecture and integrated these in a style that bespoke majestic English bearing: extravagant detail, overhanging arches, large columns, and a dramatic distribution of light and shadow. Vanbrugh went on to design directly for the royal house under Queen Anne. In 1703 he built the Queen's Theatre, which, though an aesthetic triumph, turned out to be a functional failure due to poor acoustics. Vanbrugh's own money was lost on the project, but he rallied in 1705 when John Churchill asked him to design the palace at Woodstock, Oxfordshire. Once again he collaborated with Hawksmoor to design a masterpiece. For Blenheim Palace he toned down the extravagance of the baroque and moved towards starker, more classically geometric forms. Yet the massive scale of the building, its undulating facade, and interaction with the landscape keep it in the baroque tradition. Towards the end of his career, Vanbrugh worked alone, continuing to simplify his audacious aesthetic. He produced a series of country manors, including Eastbury, Seaton Delaval, and Grimsthorpe Castle. In recognition of the mark he had made on English architecture, he was knighted in 1714 by George I.