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One of the few English examples from this time of a pure Renaisance style, on its East side at least. Most previous allusions to the Renaissance in English architecture merely used motifs as fashionable ornament.
The East side has a central semi-circular arch, three bays and three storeys of superimposed orders. The West is more restrained, framing its four-centred arch with two ionic pilasters.
This is one of the three gates in the College conceived by Dr Caius: Humility, Virtue and Honour. The Gate of Virtue is the second gate of the student's symbolic passage through the College.
The more popular Gate of Honour, leading from the College to Senate House Passage is not so pure, with its four-centred arch and a typically Elizabethan bulbous cupola. The Gate of Humility now stands in the Master's Garden (the entrance to the College from Tinity Street has the inscription 'Humilitas' but is not the original Gate of Humility).
This is one of the three gates in the College conceived by Dr Caius: Humility, Virtue and Honour. This is the gate through which the student would pass on his way to the Old Schools to graduate. It was built according to Cauis' designs after his death, and was completed in 1575. All in all, a fun and bijou piece of architecture, small and exquisitely executed, with many detailed motifs. Originally the whole structure was brightly coloured and guilded, which would have further emphasised its jewel-like nature.
Since Pevsner described it, and since it was photographed for the Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the City of Cambridge, it has had its obelisks replaced (on the four corners above the lower storey), and has had sundials remounted on its cupola. The bulbous nature of the typically Elizabethan cupola commented on by Pevsner is less obvious when furnished with sundials.
Clearly the Gate has many Classical features, with many ideas apparantly being take from Serlio's L'Archittetura, but it is not nearly as pure as the Gate of Virtue. The more obvious non-Classical features are the four-centred arch, Gothic vaulting in the entrance, and the cupola. The flat headed niches on the ground-storey seem to mimic windows in Serlio's drawings (see the Serlio plates reproduced in Ray). But with the window arches moved above the circular features on the North side, and omitted completely on the South side.
The Chapel was built while Matthew Wren, Sir Christopher Wren's uncle, was Master. He later funded the building of Pembroke Chapel across the road. Although it would have been a striking building in its day, the architect is unknown. It is a rectangular building, originally showing its brick construction, but ashlared in the 17th century. Basically the style was Gothic, with a playful curvy West gable, though the East front is topped by a Classical pediment and there are Classical pilasters and half columns on the West front. The Chapel was consecrated 1632.
It has since been altered in a number of other respects. The porch was removed in 1755, and the space in the West front gable, now occupied by clock, used to contain a niche. Also the galleries either side of the Chapel West front originally had depressed arches and an Elizabethan strapwork balustrade, but were rebuilt in 1709 with classical semi-circular arches, rectangular windows replacing the Gothic windows in the upper storey.
It is interesting to observe the orders used on the supports for the gallery arches. While supposedly Classical (Doric or Tuscan) they have ridiculously large bases in proportion to the columns.