'The cloud-capped towers'
Subtitle: Shakespeare in Soane's architectural imagination
By: Frances Sands, Alison Shell, Stephanie Coane, Emmeline Leary
Contributors: Soane, John, 1753-1837; Sir John Soane's Museum
Publisher: Sir John Soane's Museum
Published: 2016
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 47
ISBN-13: 9780993204128
Copyright date: 2016
Subjects: Exhibitions; Influence; Influence (Literary, artistic, etc.)
Other titles: Shakespeare in Soane's architectural imagination
Description: This book of essays, &#x2018;The cloud-capped towers:&#x2019; Shakespeare in Soane&#x2019;s Architectural Imagination, is published to coincide with an exhibition with the same title to be shown at Sir John Soane&#x2019;s Museum (21 April to 21 October 2016) as part of the nationwide commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the death of the great English playwright William Shakespeare.Sir John Soane (1753-1837) was a highly literary architect, who appears to have valued Shakespeare for the architectural pictures he conjured up, and also as a moral teacher. He had a deep knowledge of Shakespeare&#x2019;s work, quoting (and misquoting) it often, notably in his Royal Academy lectures. His fascination with Shakespeare is evident both in his library and in the Shakespearian references throughout his house-museum, the most obvious being the Shakespeare Recess, a shrine to the bard on the staircase.The four essays in this volume look at the influence of Shakespeare on Soane&#x2019;s architecture, against the wider background of the eighteenth-century Shakespearean revival; at Soane as a &#x2018;bardolator&#x2019; and bibliophile and at contemporary performance and theatre-going, with a particular focus on the plays seen by Soane and his wife Eliza.The essays are illustrated by a number of illustrations in full colour, the majority drawn from Soane&#x2019;s own collection -- Back cover.
Notes: Published to accompany the exhibition of the same name held at Sir John Soane's Museum, London, April 21-October 21, 2016.

Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: Architectural responses to Shakespeare in the Georgian period / Frances Sands; title: John Soane, Bardolator / Alison Shell; title: 'My library was dukedom enough': Shakespeare in Sir John Soane's librayr / Stephanie Coane; title: At the play: Soane's experience of Shakespeare in the theatre 1794-1820 / Emmeline Leary.