We love this vision of ancient Greece from Soane’s collection! 😍
Joseph Gandy was an artist with a close working relationship with Sir John Soane. His favoured draughtsman, Gandy was often commissioned by Soane, as is the case here, to create extraordinary architectural scenes from different times and places, sometimes real and sometimes imaginary. ✨
There is evidence of thousands of years of building activity at Eleusis, from the Bronze Age, via the Romans, to late antiquity. In this staggering and highly detailed vision of the Temple of Ceres, Gandy draws on archeological evidence – from both the ancient Greek traveller and geographer Pausanias and contemporary discoveries made by the wonderfully named Society of Dilettanti, a group of British nobles and scholars who sponsored the exploration and study of Greek and Roman art.
Gandy gives us his idea of what the site at Eleusis might have looked like around 200 AD. If only we had a time machine! 🙏
#SoaneMuseum#JosephGandy#JohnSoane#AncientGreece#Classics#Greece#GreekHistory#Antiquity#Temples#Ceres#Eleusis#Architecture#ArchitecturalDrawing#Archeology
Opening soon – Lina Iris Viktor: Mythic Time / Tens of Thousands of Rememberings! 🎨
Spanning sculpture, painting, photography and gilding, @linairisviktor ’s new exhibition mirrors Soane’s own eclectic tastes, combining influences from ancient Egypt to medieval illumination, and introduces new presences and memories into Soane’s remarkable home.
📅 #MythicTime opens at the Soane on 10 July, free to all our visitors. Curious to learn more? Join Lina for a special ‘in conversation’ event at the Museum on 11 July, where she’ll be speaking to the @walthercollect_ !!re!!_039;s Renée Mussai. Head to our bio for more info! 🎟️
Image: ‘Constellations X’ by Lina Iris Viktor.
#SoaneMuseum#LinaIrisViktor#LondonMuseums#DiscoverLondon#LondonExhibitions#LondonArt#VisitLondon#Sculpture#Painting#Photography#Gilding#JohnSoane
Why does Ian Hislop love the ‘Humours of an Election’? 🗳️🖼️
With the UK heading to the polls in less than two weeks, we invited the editor of @privateyenews and @haveigotnews captain to tell the tale of William Hogarth’s modern moral series ‘The Humours of an Election’, which hangs in Sir John Soane’s extraordinary Picture Room. The four-part masterpiece captures the sublime and ridiculous extremes of a notoriously dodgy Oxfordshire by-election in 1754. For Ian, it’s a testament to Hogarth’s genius and his mastery of many comic elements that writers and satirists still use today! 🎨
#SoaneMuseum#Satire#IanHislop#Election2024#WilliamHogarth#Hogarth#JohnSoane#LondonMuseums#LondonHistory#ArtHistory#VisitLondon
Let’s translate some hieroglyphs from the oldest text in the Soane! 🏺🔍
Located near to the sarcophagus of Seti I in the Museum’s Sepulchral Chamber, the funerary stela of Senaa-ib is thought to date from 2030 - 1640 B.C – making it not just the oldest text, but the oldest man-made object in Sir John Soane’s collection. Visitor assistant Charley explains the intricate details of this remarkable object, illuminating the belief systems and hierarchies of Egyptian society in this era. Isn’t it beautiful? 😍
#SoaneMuseum#AncientEgypt#Hieroglyphics#JohnSoane#VisitLondon#LondonMuseums#DiscoverLondon#Architecture#VisitLondon#Hieroglyphs
Who are these two striking fellows – and are they duelling or dancing? ⚔️🎶
Hung in the Museum’s Dome area, this is a cast of two Corybantes. Sons of the god Apollo and the muse Thalia, the Corybantes were armed and crested youthful male dancers. They protected the infant Zeus from his father, Cronus, by dancing around the baby and clashing their arms to create noise, which would make it impossible for Cronus to hear his son’s cry. The Corybantes similarly protected Dionysus – god of wine, merriment, and theatre – when he was a baby, and their behaviour later established a connection to wild Dionysian rites that involved frenzied dancing and drumming! 🕺🥁
✍️ Miha Lužar | 📸 (1) @antoinebn#SoaneMuseum#AncientRome#RomanMythology#LondonMuseums#JohnSoane#Architecture#Collecting#VisitLondon#DiscoverLondon#LondonPhoto
Fancy a new challenge at the heart of this unique Museum? ✨😍
We’re currently looking for two new members of our team to fulfil very different but vital roles. Events organised by our Public Programmes Manager connect John Soane’s work and collection to our world today, welcoming in visitors of every age and background to discover his remarkable legacy. Alternatively, as HR Manager, you could be key to the coordination and care of our community behind the scenes. Best of all, in either role, you can spend every working day learning everything there is to learn about one of London’s most remarkable treasures.
Curious to learn more about either role? Head to the LinkTree in our bio for more details. Good luck! 🔍
(Potential applicants, please note: whilst this sequence of images ~ does ~ illustrate a symbolic journey to the underworld, that is by no means reflective of the experience of working at the Soane. We’re a nice bunch, actually! 😉)
📸 @gardnergareth#SoaneMuseum#MuseumJobs#WorkInMuseums#Heritage#JobAlert#WorkWithUs#HR#Events#LondonMuseums#VisitLondon#JohnSoane#Architecture
From the ancient world to regency London, explore LGBTQ+ histories at the Soane! 🌈
To celebrate #Pride month, we’re delighted to share ‘Queer Revelations’, an online exhibition that showcases the voices of our marvellous Museum team and uncovers some of the queer histories hiding in plain view at the Soane. Together, they enrich our understanding of the Museum and its collections, highlighting the ways queer people and their stories have always been present historically.
Head to our bio to discover the exhibition or book your place to join us on Friday 28 June for a Pride Celebration #SoaneLate , where there’ll be amazing performances, workshops, storytelling, and a cocktail or two. We look forward to welcoming you! 🥂
@soanemuseumevents#PrideMonth#LGBTQHistory#PrideInLondon#QueerHistory#LondonMuseums#MuseumLates#LondonPride#MuseumPride
Sometimes a drawing can really capture the incredible scale of a building! 🤯
Welcome to Hagia Sophia. An enduring icon of Istanbul built around 532-537 AD, this remarkable structure has served as a church, museum and a mosque. Upon completion, it was the world’s largest interior space. The brilliance of this drawing – produced to educate Soane’s students – is not in illustrating the ornamental interior, of which Soane was not a fan, but rather the building’s vast size. The minute scale of the figures offers an eloquent gauge of the towering architecture around them. The figures are dressed in robes and turbans, presumably intended to be locals, albeit ethnographically inaccurate. Interestingly, almost all of the figures have their backs turned, as if joining us in admiring the building!
Don’t miss your last chance to see #FancifulFigures this weekend; a world-first exhibition taking a closer look at how the people in architectural drawings – from the 17th century to today – highlight the function, fashion and fun of wonderful designs. Closing Sunday! ✨👋
#SoaneMuseum#JohnSoane#LondonMuseums#VisitLondon#Architecture#HagiaSophia#Istanbul#LondonExhibitions#Drawing
An architect’s dream in the heart of London! ❤️
Photographer Antoine Bonin recently visited the home of Sir John Soane, one of the Regency’s greatest architects.
“Fascinated by Antiquity, Soane spent his life collecting artworks, sculptures and architectural fragments of all kinds. This collecting fever made his home one of the most original and intriguing in London, and a real thrill to photograph. Since his death in 1837, the house and its layout have remained unchanged, much to the delight of visitors, who can let their imaginations run wild in these rooms filled with thousands of treasures.”
What's your earliest memory of visiting a Museum? ✨❤️
This cheeky chap enjoyed exploring the Soane this week, particularly finding the dogs in the largest of the Picture Room’s Canalettos – although he did admit he would have preferred to spot a tyrannosaurus rex! 🦖
We’d love to hear about your earliest memories of visiting a Museum. For many of the team here, these were experiences that inspired a lifelong interest in history, and for some of us, they were frightfully dull! What do you remember? 💬🏛️
#LondonMuseums#SoaneMuseum#JohnSoane#MuseumMemories#VisitLondon#OldLondon#LondonHistory
Soane's comparative drawings create the most sublimely surreal architectural visions! 🤯
For his teaching at the @royalacademyarts , John Soane’s office created a wondrous catalogue of more than 1,000 large-scale lecture drawings. Within this remarkable collection are many comparative drawings, which juxtapose different celebrated buildings – often a famous structure from antiquity, with a London landmark that students would understand. ✍️
As the Napoleonic Wars raged across Europe, travel to study the architectural wonders of the world was impossible. These drawings brought the world into the lecture theatre, and provided Soane’s students with the opportunity to appreciate both the incredible scale and enduring ideas of classical and ancient architecture! 🏛️
(1) Porte St-Denis, Paris, Temple Bar, London and the Arch of Constantine, Rome.
(2) Elevations of the Great Pyramid at Giza & St Paul's Cathedral, London.
(3) Elevations of St Martin-in-the-Fields in London, the Portico of Augustus in Rome and the Temple on the Ilissus, Athens.
(4) Elevation of St Peter's, Rome, & sections of the Pantheon, Rome, the Radcliffe Library, Oxford and the Rotunda, Bank of England, London.
#LondonMuseums#SoaneMuseum#JohnSoane#Architecture#Drawings#ArchitectsOfInstagram#OldLondon#DrawingBuildings#Paris#Rome#Athens#Giza#LondonHistory
We adore these snapshot sketches of the Soane from the 1820s! 😍✍️
Soane regularly instructed his architecture pupils or commissioned his friends to draw his house-museum. This beautiful selection of watercolours were captured across 1824 and 1825, showing Soane’s home at a vital stage in its development - immediately after its expansion into no. 14 Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Our extensive archive of such drawings enable us today to remain true to Soane’s request that his home should be kept as he left it in 1837, as we seek to restore and maintain every space as a perfect pocket of eclectic Regency wonder! ✨
Curious to learn more about Soane’s cabinet of curiosities? Join the Museum’s former director Bruce Boucher and our deputy director Helen Dorey for a fascinating discussion about Sir John Soane's life as a collector.
📅 18 June, 6.30pm | book now via our LinkTree 🎟️
#SoaneMuseum#Watercolours#Sketches#Drawing#Architecture#LondonMuseums#VisitLondon#HiddenLondon#PictureRoom#JohnSoane#Collecting
