Isaac Ware (1704—1766) was an English architect and translator of Italian Renaissance architect

Andrea Palladio Andrea Palladio ( ; ; 30 November 1508 – 19 August 1580) was an Italian Renaissance architect active in the Venetian Republic. Palladio, influenced by Roman and Greek architecture, primarily Vitruvius, is widely considered to be one of ...

Early life

Ware was born to a life of poverty, living as a

street urchin Street children are poor or homeless children who live on the streets of a city, town, or village. Homeless youth are often called street kids or street child; the definition of street children is contested, but many practitioners and policymak ...

and working as a

chimney sweep A chimney sweep is a person who clears soot and creosote from chimneys. The chimney uses the pressure difference caused by a hot column of gas to create a draught and draw air over the hot coals or wood enabling continued combustion. Chimneys ...

, until he was adopted by

Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington and 4th Earl of Cork, (25 April 1694 – 4 December 1753) was a British architect and noble often called the "Apollo of the Arts" and the "Architect Earl". The son of the 2nd Earl of Burlington and 3rd Ea ...

at the age of eight (in about 1712) after which he was groomed and educated as a young nobleman. Reportedly he was drawing on the pavement of

Whitehall Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London. The road forms the first part of the A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea. It is the main thoroughfare running south from Trafalgar Square towards Parliament Sq ...

whereupon Burlington, recognising the talent, intelligence and personality, took him into his own household. His subsequent education included a

Grand Tour The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tut ...

of Europe and the study of architecture. (On his deathbed the ingrained soot of the chimney-sweep was still detectable.)

Architectural career

He was apprenticed to Thomas Ripley, 1 August 1721, and followed him in positions in the

Office of Works The Office of Works was established in the English royal household in 1378 to oversee the building and maintenance of the royal castles and residences. In 1832 it became the Works Department forces within the Office of Woods, Forests, Land Reven ...

, but his mentor in design was

Lord Burlington Earl of Burlington is a title that has been created twice, the first time in the Peerage of England in 1664 and the second in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1831. Since 1858, Earl of Burlington has been a courtesy title used by the duk ...

. Ware was a member of the

St. Martin's Lane Academy The St Martin's Lane Academy, a precursor of the Royal Academy, was organised in 1735 by William Hogarth, from the circle of artists and designers who gathered at Slaughter's Coffee House at the upper end of St Martin's Lane, London. The artistic ...

, which brought together many of the main figures in the English

Rococo Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...

movement, among them Louis François Roubiliac, who sculpted Ware's portrait bust about 1741. Although he held various posts with the Office of Works between 1728 and his death, including Secretary, a position previously held by

Nicholas Hawksmoor Nicholas Hawksmoor (probably 1661 – 25 March 1736) was an English architect. He was a leading figure of the English Baroque style of architecture in the late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth centuries. Hawksmoor worked alongside the principa ...

, Ware's major works were for private patrons.Summerson 1970, p.362 Aside from

Chesterfield House, Westminster Chesterfield House was a grand London townhouse built between 1747 and 1752 by Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773), statesman and man of letters. The exterior was in the Palladian style, the interior Baroque. It stood in ...

, (1747–52; demolished 1937) with its Palladian exterior and rococo interior details he built a small number of country houses, most of which have been subsequently remodelled or demolished. Clifton Hill House, Bristol, and

Wrotham Park, Hertfordshire Wrotham Park (pronounced , ) is a neo-Palladian English country house in the parish of South Mimms, Hertfordshire. It lies south of the town of Potters Bar, from Hyde Park Corner in central London. The house was designed by Isaac Ware in 175 ...

survive, Clifton Hill House, built in 1746 –50, is a Palladian villa, a type Ware also used for two houses in Scotland in the next ten years, both with service wings linked to the main house by passages. At Wrotham (1756) the central block was flanked by wings ending in octagonal pavilions. He also engaged in speculative building in the West End of London. Ware was dissatisfied with the first English language edition of Andrea Palladio's

I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura ''I quattro libri dell'architettura'' (''The Four Books of Architecture'') is a treatise on architecture by the architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580), written in Italian. It was first published in four volumes in 1570 in Venice, illustrated wi ...

, translated by Giacomo Leoni), and in particular with Leoni's illustrations. In 1738 Ware published his translation illustrated with his own careful engravings. Ware's version of the ''Four Books of Architecture'' remained the best English translation into the twentieth century in the opinion of Howard Colvin. PalladioWare1738FortunaVirilis

"Having thoroughly assimilated Palladian theory", wrote Colvin "he looked beyond it, and in the 1740s himself helped to dissolve the dictatorship of taste that Burlington imposed in the 1720s.", In 1756 he published ''A Complete Body of Architecture'' a wide-ranging work intended to "supply the place of all other books". It was described by John Summerson as "ably compiled, reflecting very fairly the solid, thoughtful competence of its author's executed works".

Publications

The following list is taken from Colvin; all were published at London. *''Designs of Inigo Jones and others'', 1731. Second edition, 1743. *''The Plans, Elevations, and Sections of Houghton in Norfolk'', 1735. *''The Four Books of Andrea Palladio's Architecture'' 1738. Dedicated to Burlington. *Two engravings of Rokeby Hall, Yorkshire. *''A Complete Body of Architecture'', issued in parts 1756-57. Second edition, 1767, reissued in 1768. *''The Practice of Perspective, from the Original Italian of Lorenzo Sirigatti, with the figures engraved by Isaac Ware, Esq.'' A translation of Sirigatti's, ''La Practica di Prospettiva'' (Venice, 1596).

Notes

References

External links

''A Complete Body of Architecture''
Digital facsimile of the 1757 edition; ETH-Bibliothek.
Isaac Ware architectural drawings, circa 1730-1766, held by the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ware, Isaac 18th-century English architects 1704 births 1766 deaths Palladian architecture