The ways in which historical events shape art and design are often fascinating. Take, for example, architecture and furniture design during the English Renaissance (1485-1649) and English Baroque (1660-1688) periods.

In the English furniture and decorative arts classes I teach at UCLA Extension, I cover in depth many of the treasures of these and the Georgian periods. And some examples of work from those eras can be viewed at The Huntington in San Marino.

I want to share two historical events in particular that influenced design in interesting ways: one negative and one positive.

Henry VIII

• The Dissolution of Royal Marriage, the Sad Dissolution of Monasteries: Henry VIII was a great benefactor of the arts and provided the stimulus for the adoption of the Renaissance style in England. 

Alas, his penchant for many wives would have dire consequences for artistic treasures.

When the Pope denied Henry VIII an annulment of his marriage to Catharine of Aragon, primarily because of her inability to produce a male heir but also so that he could marry Anne Boleyn, Henry broke from the Catholic Church and established the Church of England.

As part of that action monasteries were abolished. Henry appropriated the monastic lands and sold them to private families.

The monasteries had been centers of learning and repositories of many great works of art.  When each monastery was dissolved, its holdings were assessed, including furniture, art, and every item of any value, even the lead content of the roofs. The goods were hauled away and auctioned off with all of the king’s agents, from the lowest soldier to the highest officials, sharing in the plunder.

Only when the dissolution of the monasteries was accomplished was the sheer scale of the spiritual, artistic, and social loss realized by the English people. The great libraries of the monasteries were lost, including vast holdings of early Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, which were demolished as the books were torn apart for their supposedly precious bindings. 

In addition, the dissolution of the monasteries had consequences for standards of craftsmanship. Craftsmen in the medieval period had been under the supervision of the Church, which had high standards of workmanship. Without this supervision, standards of craftsmanship declined.  For a generation or more after 1540, many of the pieces produced by native joiners were of comparatively poor construction and ornament.

• Rats Lose, Wren’s Legacy Wins in Great Fire of London: In 1666 (English Baroque period), the Great Fire of London destroyed four-fifths of the city of London—approximately 13,200 houses, 87 churches and 50 Livery Halls over an area of 436 acres.

Although the fire only claimed a few lives it may actually have saved many more—the rats that had helped to transmit the bubonic plague (Black Death) the previous year mostly died in the fire. The number of plague victims dropped rapidly after the fire.

Wooden houses and designs dating back to the medieval period were replaced with brick and stone buildings, and owners began to insure their properties against fire damage. Christopher Wren, the great 17th century architect, began the reconstruction of London and built 49 new churches together with the great cathedral of St. Paul’s that we know today. After the fire of 1666, the face of London had changed forever.