Jacobean age

VISUAL AND LITERARY ARTS

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Jacobean age

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Jacobean age

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DATE

1603 - 1625

RELATED ARTISTS

William Shakespeare

Francis Bacon

John Donne

Ben Jonson

Inigo Jones

John Fletcher

Francis Beaumont

Robert Burton

John Marston

Thomas Middleton

SIGNIFICANT WORKS

King James Version

Jacobean age, (from Latin Jacobus, “James”), period of visual and literary arts during the reign of James I
of England (1603–25). The distinctions between the early Jacobean and the preceding Elizabethan styles
are subtle ones, often merely a question of degree, for although the dynasty changed, there was no
distinct stylistic transition.

In architecture the Jacobean age is characterized by a combination of motifs from the late Perpendicular
Gothic period with clumsy and imperfectly understood classical details, in which the influence of
Flanders was strong. The Tudor pointed arch is common, and in interior work there is considerable
simple Tudor paneling and an occasional use of Perpendicular vaulting forms. Doorways, fireplaces, and
the like are usually framed with classical forms, and both outside and inside there is a wide use of terms,
pilasters, S-scrolls, and the type of pierced, flat ornament known as strapwork. Jacobean furniture pieces
are usually of oak and are notable for their heavy forms and bulbous legs. It was during the Jacobean
period, however, that the designer Inigo Jones introduced the first fully realized Renaissance classical
style of architecture into England with his design of the Banqueting House, Whitehall (1619–22). Jones’s
style was based on the theories and works of Andrea Palladio, and Palladianism subsequently became a
widely adopted architectural style in England.

Model of a Jacobean “withdrawing room” or bedroom, based upon an interior from the manor house of
Knole, Kent, England, mixed-media model by the workshop of Mrs. James Ward Thorne, c. 1930–40; in
the Art Institute of Chicago.

Model of a Jacobean “withdrawing room” or bedroom, based upon an interior from the manor house of
Knole, Kent, England, mixed-media model by the workshop of Mrs. James Ward Thorne, c. 1930–40; in
the Art Institute of Chicago.

Gift of Mrs. James Ward Thorne, 1941.1187/Photography © The Art Institute of Chicago

During this period, painting and sculpture lagged behind architecture in accomplishments because there
was no outstanding practitioner of either. The chief of the early Jacobean painters was the talented
miniaturist Isaac Oliver. Most of the Jacobean portraitists, like the sculptors, were foreign-born or
foreign-influenced—for example, Marcus Gheerhaerts the Younger, Paul van Somer, Cornelius Johnson,
and Daniel Mytens. Their efforts were later surpassed by those of the Flemish painters Peter Paul Rubens
and Anthony Van Dyck, who worked in England during the reign of Charles I.

The Long Gallery at Aston Hall, Birmingham, Eng., 1618, with paneled walls, tapestries, and intricately
molded strapwork plaster ceilings characteristic of the most sumptuous Jacobean interiors.

The Long Gallery at Aston Hall, Birmingham, Eng., 1618, with paneled walls, tapestries, and intricately
molded strapwork plaster ceilings characteristic of the most sumptuous Jacobean interiors.
Courtesy of the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, England

In literature, too, many themes and patterns were carried over from the preceding Elizabethan era.
Though rich, Jacobean literature is often darkly questioning. William Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies
were written between about 1601 and 1607. Other Jacobean dramatic writers became preoccupied with
the problem of evil: the plays of John Webster, John Marston, Thomas Middleton, and George Chapman
induce all the terror of tragedy but little of its pity. Comedy was best represented by the acid satire of
Ben Jonson and by the varied works of Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher. Another feature of drama at
this time, however, was the development of the extravagant courtly entertainment known as the
masque, which reached its literary peak in the works of Jonson and Inigo Jones. Jonson’s comparatively
lucid and graceful verse and the writings of his Cavalier successors constituted one of the two main
streams of Jacobean poetry. The other poetic stream lay in the intellectual complexity of John Donne and
the Metaphysical poets. In prose, Francis Bacon and Robert Burton were among the writers who
displayed a new toughness and flexibility of style. The monumental prose achievement of the era was
the great King James Version of the Bible, which first appeared in 1611.

Bible: King James Version

Bible: King James Version

Bible, King James Version, 1611.

© iStockphoto/Thinkstock

This article was most recently revised and updated by Kathleen Kuiper, Senior Editor.

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ADDITIONAL MEDIA

Castle Bromwich Hall

Shakespearean tragedy

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3 REFERENCES FOUND IN BRITANNICA ARTICLES

Assorted References

interior design development

In interior design: England

Stuart style

In Stuart style

Western theatre development

In Western theatre: Jacobean theatre

©2019 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

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