WREN, SIR CHRISTOPHER (1632-1723), English archi tect, the son of a clergyman, was born at East Knoyle, Wiltshire, on Oct. :Co, 1632; he entered at Wadham College, Oxford, in 1646, took his degree in 165o, and in 1653 was made a fellow of All Souls. While at Oxford Wren distinguished himself in geometry and applied mathematics, and Newton, in his Principle, p. 19 (ed. of 1713), speaks very highly of his work as a geome trician. In 1657 he became professor of astronomy at Gresham College, and in 166o was elected Savilian professor of astronomy at Oxford. It is, however, as an architect that Wren is best known, and the great fire of London, by its destruction of the cathedral and nearly all the city churches, gave Wren a unique opportunity. Just before the fire Wren was asked by Charles II. to prepare a scheme for the restoration of the old St. Paul's. In May 1666 Wren submitted his report and designs (in the All Souls collection), for this work; the old cathedral was in a very ruinous state, and Wren proposed to remodel the greater part, as he said, "after a good Roman manner," and not, "to follow the Gothick Rudeness of the old Design." According to this scheme only the old choir was left; the nave and transepts were to be rebuilt after the classical style, with a lofty dome at the crossing—not unlike the plan eventually carried out.
In September of the same year (i666) the fire occurred, and the old St. Paul's was completely gutted. From i668 to 167o attempts were being made by the chapter to restore the ruined building; but Dean Sancroft was anxious to have it wholly rebuilt, and in 1668 he had asked Wren to prepare a design for a wholly new church. This first design, the model for which is preserved in the South Kensington Museum, is very inferior to what Wren afterwards devised. In plan it is an immense rotunda surrounded by a wide aisle, and approached by a double portico; the rotunda is covered with a dome taken from that of the Pantheon in Rome ; on this a second dome stands, set on a lofty drum, and this second dome is crowned by a tall spire. But the dean and chapter objected to the absence of a structural choir, nave and aisles, and wished to follow the mediaeval cathedral arrangement. Thus, in spite of its having been approved by the
king, this design was happily abandoned—much to Wren's disgust; and he prepared another scheme with a similar treatment of a dome crowned by a spire, which in 1675 was ordered to be carried out. Wren apparently did not himself approve of this second design, for he obtained the king's permission to alter it as he liked, without showing models or drawings to any one, and the actual building bears little resemblance to the approved design, to which it is superior in almost every point.
Wren's earlier designs have the exterior of the church arranged with one order of columns; the division of the whole height into two orders was an immense gain in increasing the apparent scale of the whole, and makes the exterior of St. Paul's very superior to that of St. Peter's in Rome, which is utterly dwarfed by the colossal size of the columns and pilasters of its single order.
The present dome and the drum on which it stands, masterpieces of graceful line and harmonious proportion, were very im portant alterations from the earlier scheme. As a scientific engineer and practical architect Wren was perhaps more remark able than as an artistic designer. The construction of the wooden external dome, and the support of the stone lantern by an inner cone of brickwork, quite independent of either the external or in ternal dome, are wonderful examples of his constructive ingenuity.
The first stone of the new St. Paul's was laid on June 21, 1675 the choir was opened for use on Dec. 2, 1697 ; and the last stone of the cathedral was set in 171o.
Wren also designed a colonnade to enclose a large piazza forming a clear space round the church, somewhat after the fashion of Bernini's colonnade in front of St. Peter's, but space in the city was too ,valuable to admit of this. Wren was an en thusiastic admirer of Bernini's designs, and visited Paris in 1665 in order to see him and his proposed scheme for the rebuilding of the Louvre. Bernini showed his design to Wren, but would not let him copy it, though, as he said, he "would have given his skin" to be allowed to do so.