03 — ARTWORK
Exterior view
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- Other
PALETTE
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COMMENTARY
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Robert Smythson, who aided Sir John Thynne at Longleat, later designed and built several notable houses, the finest being Wollaton Hall (1580-88) near Nottingham. Wollaton has a magnificent site on a small hill overlooking a large park. The plan of the house is a square with four square corner towers, resembling a plan in the treatise on architecture by Serlio, whose book was influential in English Renaissance architecture. The great hall is in the centre of the square; it rises an extra story above the whole building. The house has a low basement story that contained the kitchens and service rooms; it is one of the first buildings to use this arrangement, which became common in the history of later English and American architecture.
On the exterior the massing is that of a rectangular block the rectilinear quality of which is further emphasized by the numerous many-mullioned rectangular windows. The decoration is completely ClassicalRelating to the culture of ancient Greece and Rome (classical Antiquity). The classical world played a profoundly important role in the Renaissance, with Italian scholars, writers, and artists seeing their own period as the rebirth (the "renaissance") of classical values after the Middle Ages. The classical world was considered the golden age for the arts, literature, philosophy, and politics. Concepts of the classical, however, changed greatly from one period to the next. Roman literature provided the starting point in the 14th century, scholars patiently finding, editing and translating a wide range of texts. In the 15th century Greek literature, philosophy and art - together with the close study of the remains of Roman buildings and sculptures-expanded the concept of the classical and ensured it remained a vital source of ideas and inspiration., with superimposed pilasters, round-arched niches, and Classical balustrades, but it shows touches of Italian MannerismA movement in Italian art from about 1520 to 1600. Developing out of the Renaissance, Mannerism rejected Renaissance balance and harmony in favor of emotional intensity and ambiguity. In Mannerist painting, this was expressed mainly through severe distortions of perspective and scale; complex and crowded compositions; strong, sometimes harsh or discordant colors; and elongated figures in exaggerated poses. In architecture, there was a playful exaggeration of Renaissance forms (largely in scale and proportion) and the greater use of bizarre decoration. Mannerism gave way to the Baroque. Leading Mannerists include Pontormo, Bronzino, Parmigianino, El Greco and Tintoretto., which came into England primarily from Flanders. The pilasters and half columns have raised bands across their middles, and the gables crowning the corner towers are decorated with Flemish strapwork (i.e., bands raised in reliefA sculptural work in which all or part projects from the flat surface. There are three basic forms: low relief (bas-relief, basso rilievo), in which figures project less than half their depth from the background; medium relief (mezzo-rilievo), in which figures are seen half round; and high relief (alto rilievo), in which figures are almost detached from their background. assuming curvilinear forms suggestive of leather straps).
The photo shows the façadethe front or principal face of a building, especially one elaborately constructed; a blind façade is a façade that is purely decorative and does not relate to the structure of the building. on the park side of the building.
View the <a href="#" onClick="w=window.open ('/support/plans/s/smythson/wollaton.html', 'newWin', 'scrollbars=yes,status=no,dependent=yes,screenX=0,screenY=0,width=400,height=600');w.opener=this;w.focus();return false">ground plan</a> of Wollaton Hall.
CITE THIS RECORD — BIBTEX
@online{wga-rb039d2124e9106,
author = {Krén, Emil and Marx, Daniel},
title = {Exterior view by SMYTHSON, Robert},
organization = {{Web Gallery of Art}},
date = {2026-09-09},
url = {https://beta.wga.hu/artists/smythson-robert-r55865fde74bb5b/exterior-view-rb039d2124e9106},
urldate = {2026-09-09},
langid = {english}
}ACCESSED 2026-09-09. REPLACE THE AUTHOR FIELD WITH THE COMMENTARY AUTHOR WHERE ONE IS NAMED.
