Title: 'The cloud-capped towers'
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.
Subjects: Exhibitions, Influence, Influence (Literary, artistic, etc.), Soane, john, sir, 1753-1837, Shakespeare, william, 1564-1616, influence
People: John Soane (1753-1837), William Shakespeare (1564-1616)