Editing Inigo Jones (section)

== Masques ==
Jones worked as a producer and architect for [[Masque]]s from 1605 to 1640, but his most known work in this field came from his collaboration with poet and playwright [[Ben Jonson]]. Having worked together for fifteen years, the two debated and had disagreements about their line of work and about what was most integral in a masque. While Jonson argued that the most important aspect of a masque was the written word that the audience heard, Jones argued that the visual spectacle was the most important aspect, and that what the audience saw was more important.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Designs by Inigo Jones for masques & plays at court.|url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/miua.1398364.0001.001?urlappend=%3Bseq=7|access-date=14 May 2021|via=HathiTrust| series=Twelfth volume of the Walpole society | year=1924 | publisher=The Walpole ad Malone societies |hdl = 2027/miua.1398364.0001.001?urlappend=%3Bseq=7|language=en}}</ref> Jones also felt that the architect had just as much creative freedom and rights as the writer or poet of the masque.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=McKee|first=Alexander|year=2007|title=Jonson vs. Jones in "Prospero's Books"|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43797345|journal=Literature/Film Quarterly|volume=35|issue=2|pages=121–128|jstor=43797345|issn=0090-4260}}</ref> In defence of this Jones stated that masques were "nothing but pictures with light and motion," making little to note of the words spoken.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Rodgers|first=Amy|year=2014|title=The Language of Looking: Making Senses Speak in Jonsonian Masque|journal=Renaissance Drama|volume=42|pages=29–55|doi=10.1086/674681|s2cid=191446731}}</ref>

Jones's work on masques with Jonson is credited to be one of the first instances of [[Theatrical scenery|scenery]] introduced in theatre.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Cunningham|first=Peter|url=http://hdl.handle.net/2027/yale.39002006874656|title=Inigo Jones.A life of the architect;| series=Shakespeare society. Publications; no. 39 |date=1848|publisher=London|hdl=2027/yale.39002006874656}}</ref> In his masques, curtains were used and placed in between the stage and the audience, and they were to be opened to introduce a scene. Jones was also known for using the stage and theatre space in its entirety, putting his actors throughout different parts of the theatre, such as placing them below the stage or elevating them onto a higher platform. Jones's settings on the stage also incorporated different uses of light, experimenting with coloured glasses, screens and oiled paper to create a softer source of light on the stage.<ref name=":0" />

Jones is also known for introducing to English audiences moving scenery through what is called 'machina versatilis', helping to create motion among a stable scene without any noticeable [[Stagehand]]s and of creating a representation of the ethereal.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" />

These elements of stage design and of theatre production would later have influence beyond the English court, as those working in the public stage would take up these ideas and apply them to the early modern stage and for its larger audience.<ref name=":1" />