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Banqueting House
Inigo Jones' second visit to Italy in 1613-14, during which he studied the buildings of Andrea Palladio in particular, prepared the young architec for his most ambitious project the Banqueting House. The first Banqueting House, appendaged to the Royal Palace in London, was built in 1581 and served for dining and theatrical entertainment. A second one was built in 1606 but was destroyed by fire in 1619. The Banqueting House designed by Jones in 1619was less a place for banquets than a royal audience hall, reflecting a greater emphasis on royal authority. This was the first public structure in the mature Palladian style in England. At the ground floor, the windows between the pilasters were an alternating sequence of triangulated and segmental pediments; while at the upper floor, the windows are all unpedimented, yielding an intricate yet calm design. The central three bays are emphasized by the use of attached columns, and the comers by pilaster pairs. The whole is raised on a low rusticated basement that matches in height the balustraded frieze on top. To understand the building's importance, we have to keep in mind the symbolic significance of the Italian motifs as an attempt to extend the architectural language born during Europe's mercantile revolution in the 15th century. But whereas Italian architecture developed in a culture of regional princes and rich merchanth, it was now being associated with the centralization of the state