We have heard of few architects, either ancient or modern, in whom all these requisites were so perfectly united. He was of Wadham college Oxford, and be came Savilian professor of astronomy in that university.
Having given various excellent specimens of his archi tectural talents in that beautiful city, he was appointed a commissioner for repairing St Paul's church in London. In 1665, he travelled into France, to examine the public buildings of that nation. After the great fire of 1666, he was fixed upon to form the plan, and direct the rebuild ing of St Paul's. This he accomplished in the course of 35 years, and has produced an edifice, of which his country has reason to be proud. (See Plate CLXXIV.) The extreme length is 530 feet, breadth 250, height 366, breadth of façade 180, outward diameter of the cupola 140, inward at whispering gallery 112 feet. The original and favourite design of the architect was not adopted by the commissioners. It, in many respects, possessed more magnificent features than the present. Instead of two it consisted of one order only, and the portico was very considerably insulated. Every part had by this means much more simplicity, elevation, and bold ness, and there being only a single range of large win dows, it conveyed the idea of one great apartment. In ternally, the dome rested upon the entablature of the or der, without the intervention of arches. Plates of this design have been published, and a model of it is still pre served in an apartment of the present edifice.
The devastation caused by the great fire of 1666, af forded many other opportunities for his architectural ta lents. In the church of St Stephen's, Walbrook, there is a most perfect specimen of his skill, (see Plate CLXXV.) It consists internally of a cupola, resting upon Corinthian columns ; the whole distributed and adjusted with the utmost delicacy and correctness. Many of the other churches of the city owe their most distinguishing fea tures to his masterly hand. The tower of St Mary he Bow is a singular and bold ornament for a great city. In the monument, he has constructed a column equal in de sign and execution, and superior in elevation, to any of antiquity : if his material is inferior, or the sculptures less numerous, prudence and necessity limited his exer tions. The height of this column is 202 feet ; that of
Antonine, at Rome, was 175 ; and that of Trajan only 147.
The other works of this great architect are numerous. The parts he planned in Greenwich Hospital are inferior to few edifices, ancient or modern. The colonnades, of 347 feet in length, will bear a comparison with those of Bernini, in front of St Peter's.
Chelsea Hospital, and the modern part of Hampton Court, though chiefly of brick, are yet magnificent buildings. And the garden front and chapel of Trinity Collcre, Cambridge, the Ashmolean Museum, and Sheldonian Theatre, at Oxford, besides many lesser works, will perpetuate his fame in that singularly fine city.
In the works of Sir C. Wren, the Roman manner was completely established ; the Gothic was totally rejected, and branded with terms of contempt. The public build ings were afterwards all designed in this newly adopted style ; and, for some time, Gibbs appears to have been most extensively employed in the management of many of them. He was a scrupulous copyist of Palladio, but he seldom displayed good taste. In the London churches, of St Martin's in the Fields, the New Church in the Strand, and St George's, Hanover Square, he had am ple opportunities of displaying talents; but it is only in St Martin's that any degree of merit can be allowed him : there the single Corinthian order, carried up the whole height, and quite around the church, is simple and cor rect. ; and the portico is the only one in London, which conveys any idea of that of the pantheon at Rome ; but the two rows of rusticated windows destroy simplicity, and greatly injure the general appearance. The portico of St George's, Hanover Square, wants depth ; and the New Church in the Strand is frittered into trifling parts, and covered with tawdry ornaments. In the Radcliffe Library, at Oxford, there is much to blame ; the cupola seems to have sunk from its intended situation, and the doors and windows are in a worse style than those of St Martin's. So completely was the Gothic style by this time supplanted by the Palladian, that Gibbs attached a church, designed in the latter style, to a very fine Gothic tower, in the town of Derby. He published a volume of designs in 1728.