Inigo Jones, (born July 15, 1573, Smithfield, London, Eng.—died June 21, 1652, London), British painter, architect, and designer who founded the English classical tradition of architecture. The Queen’s House (1616–19) at Greenwich, London, his first major work, became a part of the National Maritime Museum in 1937.

Inigo Jones (/ ˈɪnɪɡoʊ /; possibly born Ynyr Jones; 15 July 1573 – 21 June 1652) was the first significant architect in England in the early modern period, and the first to employ Vitruvian rules of proportion and symmetry in his buildings.

Inigo Jones facts. Inigo Jones (15 July 1573 – 21 June 1652) was a famous English architect in the early modern period. He was the first person to introduce the architecture of Ancient Rome and the Italian Renaissance to Britain. His buildings were the first in Britain to employ Vitruvian rules of proportion and symmetry.

Inigo Jones (b. 1573–d. 1652) is widely acknowledged to have been England’s most important architect. He was also the single-most important figure in the visual arts in England in the 17th century. Jones famously traveled to Italy and studied first-hand the buildings of the Italian masters, and he admired, in particular, those of Andrea Palladio.