About the The Labyrinth Walk in London
Private house, architectural drawing academy, and from 1837 a museum, the Sir John Soane's Museum hosts indisputably one of the most fascinating collections in the world. The exceptionally congested interiors of this little house on Lincoln's Inn Fields, are the product of the obsessive collecting activity of Sir John Soane, one of the greatest and most eccentric figures in the history of British architecture.
An intricate succession of rooms, corridors, courts and crypts, the structure of this house expresses at best Soane's genius in creating the most unexpected spatial interplay and his constant inventiveness in breaking the rules of eighteenth-century Neoclassicism. In this labyrinth, where no straight axes are allowed, where convex mirrors and concealed lantern-lights continually alter the perception of the space, creating that ‘poetry of architecture' preached by Soane, is scattered an immense number of object collected by the architect during the decades between the turn of the
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Private house, architectural drawing academy, and from 1837 a museum, the Sir John Soane's Museum hosts indisputably one of the most fascinating collections in the world. The exceptionally congested interiors of this little house on Lincoln's Inn Fields, are the product of the obsessive collecting activity of Sir John Soane, one of the greatest and most eccentric figures in the history of British architecture.
An intricate succession of rooms, corridors, courts and crypts, the structure of this house expresses at best Soane's genius in creating the most unexpected spatial interplay and his constant inventiveness in breaking the rules of eighteenth-century Neoclassicism. In this labyrinth, where no straight axes are allowed, where convex mirrors and concealed lantern-lights continually alter the perception of the space, creating that ‘poetry of architecture' preached by Soane, is scattered an immense number of object collected by the architect during the decades between the turn of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century. Paintings by Canaletto, Hogarth, Fuseli and Turner, engravings and watercolours, casts of Gothic and Classical architectural fragments and ancient statues, gems and little bronzes are displayed in every corner of the house, continually playing with the surrounding architecture so to form an indissoluble ensemble difficult to find elsewhere.
The walk will start with and introduction to Sir Soane, his time and his passion for collecting. We will discuss the relevance of his work in London and the role of his house in today's London.We will enter the library, one of the biggest rooms of the house, where the merging between Classical and Gothic elements is more accentuated; we will cross then all the rooms of the house, the Study, the Colonnade, with its impressive display of plaster casts and original marbles, the Picture Room, a sort of ‘Chinese box' with three of its walls containing hinged panels which open to display further pictures, reaching at the end the Monk's Parlour, a gloomy Gothic fantasy, part of a ‘monastic' suite that Soane installed in this part of the Museum. During the visit we will discuss the characteristics of Soane's architecture, the architectural and cultural context in the crucial years at the turn of the eighteenth century and aspects of the great English collecting tradition, with special reference to the Grand Tour. As we move along, we will consider thoroughly some of the most important pieces of the collection, such as two of the cycles painted by Hogarth (‘A Rake's Progress' and ‘An Election'), the Canalettos, or the architectural and archaeological watercolours, and the reasons why they were purchased by the voracious architect.
