cover of episode Sir John Soane

Sir John Soane

2025/3/6
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Frances Sands
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Frank Salmon
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Gillian Darley
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节目主持人：本节目讨论了建筑师约翰·索恩（1753-1837）的生平和作品。他出身贫寒，但凭借才华和努力成为了一名杰出的建筑师，设计了许多著名的建筑，尽管其中一些已被毁坏。他最著名的作品是位于伦敦林肯律师会馆广场的住宅，他将这栋住宅改建并收藏了大量的文物和艺术品，旨在让参观者体验到一个浓缩的欧洲文化之旅。他相信建筑能够启迪人们对建筑诗意的理解。 Gillian Darley：索恩出身贫寒，父亲是泥瓦匠，兄弟是搬运工。他是一位自学者，不断学习各种知识。他的建筑事业起步于得到著名建筑师的赏识和指导。他通过皇家艺术学院的奖学金获得了去欧洲大陆旅行学习的机会，这对他来说是人生中最幸运的事件。在意大利的旅行学习让他有机会亲眼目睹古代建筑的遗迹，这对他产生了深远的影响。他与儿子关系紧张，这导致妻子去世，也间接促成了博物馆的建立。他尊重他的工匠和技工，这可能与他自身的出身有关。 Frank Salmon：索恩设计了许多建筑，但许多重要的公共建筑如今已被拆除。他的建筑风格独特，不属于那个时代的任何一种流行风格。他的建筑风格以平面和砖墙为主，将室内的空间概念带到室外。他独特的穹顶设计和对光线的巧妙运用也是其建筑风格的显著特点。他的作品对后来的现代主义建筑产生了影响。他与Joseph Gandy合作，Gandy的绘画作品生动地展现了索恩的建筑理念。索恩想象未来的人们会如何看待他的住宅，认为它应该被视为一位艺术家的住所。 Frances Sands：索恩对建筑的设计有三个方面的要求：经济责任、结构稳固和建筑的诗意。他认为建筑师应该广泛学习以往的建筑知识，才能形成自己的风格。他的财富来自于妻子带来的嫁妆和成功的职业生涯。他的博物馆是由三栋房子改建而成，他不断购置房屋以容纳日益增长的收藏。他善于利用空间和光线，创造出令人惊叹的室内效果。他的收藏品大多是在伦敦购得的。他的住宅最初更多的是作为住宅使用，后期才逐渐成为收藏品的展示场所。他的博物馆在早期并不受欢迎，直到20世纪60年代和70年代才开始受到更多关注。他将自己的住宅作为建筑学院，让学生们学习和观察他的收藏。他利用学生创作了大量的建筑图纸来辅助他的讲座。他的讲座涵盖了世界建筑史，并对不同时期的建筑风格进行了评价。他的建筑风格简洁而创新，对后来的现代主义建筑产生了影响。他给后世留下了慈善、教育、好奇心和对艺术的热爱等宝贵的遗产。他是一位慷慨的慈善家，他关心他的员工和社会弱势群体。他的博物馆收藏了大量的建筑图纸，这些图纸对后来的建筑师产生了影响。

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Chapters
This chapter delves into the life of Sir John Soane, highlighting his rise from humble beginnings to becoming a noted architect. It explores his early life, education, and the significant influences that shaped his career.
  • Sir John Soane was the son of a bricklayer.
  • He is best known for his work on the Bank of England and his house in Lincoln's Inn Fields.
  • Soane's education and early career were influenced by figures such as James Peacock and George Dance Jr.

Shownotes Transcript

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the architect Sir John Soane (1753 -1837), the son of a bricklayer. He rose up the ranks of his profession as an architect to see many of his designs realised to great acclaim, particularly the Bank of England and the Law Courts at Westminster Hall, although his work on both of those has been largely destroyed. He is now best known for his house in Lincoln’s Inn Fields in London, which he remodelled and crammed with antiquities and artworks: he wanted visitors to experience the house as a dramatic grand tour of Europe in microcosm. He became professor of architecture at the Royal Academy, and in a series of influential lectures he set out his belief in the power of buildings to enlighten people about “the poetry of architecture”. Visitors to the museum and his other works can see his trademark architectural features such as his shallow dome, which went on to inspire Britain's red telephone boxes.

With:

Frances Sands, the Curator of Drawings and Books at Sir John Soane’s Museum

Frank Salmon, Associate Professor of the History of Art at the University of Cambridge and Director of the Ax:son Johnson Centre for the Study of Classical Architecture

And

Gillian Darley, historian and author of Soane's biography.

Producer: Eliane Glaser In Our time is a BBC Studios Audio production.

Reading list:

Barry Bergdoll, European Architecture 1750-1890 (Oxford University Press, 2000)

Bruce Boucher, John Soane's Cabinet of Curiosities: Reflections on an Architect and His Collection (Yale University Press, 2024)

Oliver Bradbury, Sir John Soane’s Influence on Architecture from 1791: An Enduring Legacy (Routledge, 2015)

Gillian Darley, John Soane: An Accidental Romantic (Yale University Press, 1999)

Ptolemy Dean, Sir John Soane and the Country Estate (Ashgate, 1999)

Ptolemy Dean, Sir John Soane and London (Lund Humphries, 2006)

Helen Dorey, John Soane and J.M.W. Turner: Illuminating a Friendship (Sir John Soane’s Museum, 2007)

Tim Knox, Sir John Soane’s Museum (Merrell, 2015)

Brian Lukacher, Joseph Gandy: An Architectural Visionary in Georgian England (Thames and Hudson, 2006)

Susan Palmer, At Home with the Soanes: Upstairs, Downstairs in 19th Century London (Pimpernel Press, 2015)

Frances Sands, Architectural Drawings: Hidden Masterpieces at Sir John Soane’s Museum (Batsford, 2021)

Sir John Soane’s Museum, A Complete Description (Sir John Soane’s Museum, 2018)

Mary Ann Stevens and Margaret Richardson (eds.), John Soane Architect: Master of Space and Light (Royal Academy Publications, 1999)

John Summerson, Architecture in Britain 1530-1830 (9th edition, Yale University Press, 1993)

A.A. Tait, Robert Adam: Drawings and Imagination (Cambridge University Press, 1993)

John H. Taylor, Sir John Soane’s Greatest Treasure: The Sarcophagus of Seti I (Pimpernel Press, 2017)

David Watkin, Sir John Soane: Enlightenment Thought and the Royal Academy Lectures (Cambridge University Press, 1996)

David Watkin, Sir John Soane: The Royal Academy Lectures (Cambridge University Press, 2000)

John Wilton-Ely, Piranesi, Paestum & Soane (Prestel, 2013)