The Palladians were largely Whigs, led by Lord Burlington and Colen Campbell, a fellow Scot who developed a rivalry with Gibbs.

[1] However, despite being unfashionable, he gained a number of Tory patrons and clients, and became hugely influential through his published works, which became popular as pattern books for architecture.

His architectural style did incorporate Palladian elements, as well as forms from Italian Baroque and Inigo Jones (1573–1652), but was most strongly influenced by the work of Sir Christopher Wren (1632–1723), who was an early supporter of Gibbs.

[2] Despite the influence of his books, Gibbs, as a stylistic outsider, had little effect on the later direction of British architecture, which saw the rise of Neoclassicism shortly after his death.

[6] By the end of 1704 he was studying architecture under Carlo Fontana;[7] he was also taught by Pietro Francesco Garroli, professor of perspective at the Accademia di San Luca.

But a combination of events would ensure Gibbs was deprived of his place as architect to the commission by December 1715: Queen Anne had died and a Whig government had replaced the Tories; and the failure of the Jacobite rising of 1715 that was supported by the Earl of Mar were all factors.

[22] In 1735, Gavin Hamilton painted A Conversation of Virtuosis... at the Kings Arms, a group portrait that included Michael Dahl, George Vertue, John Wootton, Gibbs and Rysbrack, along with other artists who were instrumental in bringing the Rococo style to English design and interiors.

The most significant of the architectural works were Vincenzo Scamozzi's L'Idea dell'Architettura Universale, Sebastiano Serlio's Sette Libri d'Architettura, Domenico Fontana's Della transportatione dell'obelisco Vaticano e delle fabriche di Sisto V, Colen Campbell's Vitruvius Britannicus, Giacomo Leoni's The Architecture of A. Palladio, in Four Books, William Kent's The Designs of Inigo Jones and Robert Wood's The ruins of Palmyra.

Gibbs is also known to have owned at least 117 paintings, including works by Canaletto, Giovanni Paolo Panini, Sebastiano Ricci, Antoine Watteau and Willem van de Velde the Younger.

[28] In June 1749 Gibbs set out for the spa town of Aix-la-Chapelle for treatment: he long suffered from kidney stones and had lost weight and was in pain.

whose Skill in Architecture appears by his Printed Works as well as the Buildings directed by him, Among other Legacys & Charitys He left One Hundred Pounds towards Enlarging this Church He died Augt.

In his will made on 9 May 1754, Gibbs left £1000, his Plate, and three houses in Marylebone to Lord Erskine in gratitude for favours from his father the late Earl of Mar.

A previous design had been prepared by the English Baroque architect Thomas Archer, which Gibbs developed in an Italian Mannerist style, influenced by the Palazzo Branconio dell'Aquila in Rome, attributed to Raphael, as well as incorporating elements from Wren.

[36] Colen Campbell's Vitruvius Britannicus (1715), which promoted the Palladian style, also contains unfavourable comments regarding Carlo Fontana and St Mary le Strand.

Other early designs include the house of Cannons, Middlesex (1716–20), for James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos, and the tower of Wren's St Clement Danes (1719).

[37] At Twickenham he designed the pavilion at Orleans House, called the Octagon Room, for a Scottish patron, James Johnston (1655–1737) former Secretary of State for Scotland, about 1720.

Gibbs also completed the Gothic Temple (1741–48), a triangular folly at Stowe, Buckinghamshire, and now one of the properties leased and maintained by the Landmark Trust.

Other garden buildings at Stowe include the pair of "Boycott Pavilions", which were altered by Giovanni Battista Borra in 1754 to replace the pyramidal stone roofs with more conventional domes.

This apparent incongruity was criticised at the time,[43] but St Martin-in-the-Fields nevertheless became a model for church buildings, particularly for Anglican worship, across Britain and around the world.

It was finished in 1732 and contains the Great Hall and the main staircase, the walls of which are covered by murals painted by William Hogarth, depicting Christ healing the sick at the Pool of Bethesda and the parable of the good Samaritan.

A simple composition, similar in style to his houses, the building is enlivened by a central feature incorporating an arch, within a doric portal, and a Diocletian window, all under a pediment.

[49] Gibbs' design saw him returning to his Italian mannerist sources, and in particular shows the influence of Santa Maria della Salute, Venice (1681), by Baldassarre Longhena.

The building incorporates unexpected vertical alignments: for instance, the ribs of the dome do not line up with the columns of the drum, but lie in between, creating a rhythmically complex composition.

[49] Gibbs published the first edition of A Book of Architecture, containing designs of buildings and ornaments in 1728, dedicated to one of his patrons John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll.

The first page of the introduction included: '...such a Work as this would be of use to such Gentleman as might be concerned in Building, especially in the remote parts of the Country, where little or no assistance for designs can be procured'.

[51] Other published works by Gibbs include The Rules for Drawing the Several Parts of Architecture (1732), which explained how to draw the Classical orders and related details and was used well into the 19th century,[49] and Bibliotheca Radcliviana subtitled A Short Description of the Radcliffe Library Oxford (1747) to celebrate the Radcliffe Camera, including a list of all the craftsmen employed in the building's construction as well as twenty-one plates.

It is a history book with accounts of warfare, voyages of discovery from Africa to China (including descriptions of the religious beliefs of these countries) and also the initial colonisation of Brazil.