Webbready

Once again, I have provided an entry from the journal I kept during my trip to London, England. Unlike my previous entries, this one is presented in full, but there is a rather annoying and repeated error I have corrected from the original text. Because the Museum was referred the “Soane’s Museum”, I was under the impression it was named after “John Soanes” and not “John Soane.” Please note that all other grammatical or factual errors will remain as they were originally in the handwritten journal.

January 20, 2000

Today’s entry will be short but not as terribly brief as my entry for yesterday. Other than reviewing a Red Fire production of Hamlet, our sole activity was to visit the museum of Sir John Soane, a famous architect. The size of the museum, which was once his house, may not have compared with that of other museums we visited, but Soane had an amazing ability to make use of all the available space in his house.

After entering the museum, we learned of the essential details of his life. He acquired the land and had the existing house demolished so he could create a house the way he wanted it to be. He then disowned his don, and hand an act of Parliament passed which instructed that his house be turned into a Museum. In the room were were led into there were mirrors all over the place, including two circular mirrors that resembled modern security mirrors. The ceiling was full of paintings and one could momentarily forget that someone lived here on a daily basis.

The group was taken next to a room in which Soane kept his paintings. Many of the works that covered the walls were painted by Hogarth and came from his series, “The Rake.” Soane, however, had a method of storing more paintings than the room contained, or at least seemed to contain. Each of the north and south walls opened like cupboard doors, revealing not only another wall underneath it which was covered with paintings, but interior portions of these doors had paintings as well. How this man made so much out of such a small space was truly remarkable.

Next we were led upstairs, but before we reached the stairs we were led through a hall that had all sorts of works of art, big and small. There were so many statues and busts that there was very little room for the group to maneuver; one false move would have spelled a very, very large bill for the one who broke something. A little later, we were told one of the conditions upon which this house was to be turned into a museum was that not one work of art could be removed. The idea that a person lived in a house with all sorts of easily breakable objects is very hard for my mind to grasp.

At last we climbed the stairs, noticing miniature statues along along the walls. One of them was a statue of Michael defeating Satan. The most interesting part about the statue is that neither Michael nor Satan were portrayed in a supernatural fashion; Michael was wingless and Satan looked like an ordinary, fallen man. This is a stark contrast to the popular images of angels and demons, winged creatures both fantastic and grotesque. Indeed, if it weren’t for the title, I might have easily dismissed the statue of on man victorious over another.

The first floor was much less crowded than the ground floor, but that did not mean Soane was less ingenious with his space. In his office, the wall/doors that were in his room full of paintings made their return here. Mirrors, strategically placed, gave unique views of certain objects that would not be normally seen. The walls were marked according to what direction they were on, making it difficult to get lost. Along the south side of the first floor, there were archways and a library of books, the books carefully placed so that they would not obstruct the archway but actually become part of it. Yet we were not done with our tour, for the basement was our next stop, and thus we descended.

Similar to the ground floor hall, the basement was equally cluttered with all sorts of work. One room in particular was littered with so many grotesque heads (statue heads) and other objects that one colleague commented the room would be a great place to film a movie in. Once again, as so often during this trip, we were reminded that it is a miracle this place survived because of the bombs during the Second World War. That is not to say all the works were completely undamaged; one attendant reminded us to be careful as we passed a statue that had a finger reattached to it.

One of the statues that caught my attention was that of Cupid and Psyche. It surprised me that while Cupid had a clearly adult body, his wings were no bigger than those of the statues of when he was portrayed as a child (proportionally). We did not have much time to look around though and a few minutes later we left the museum.

As I left the museum it was once again brought to my attention that for all its architectural wonder, this was still a house where people lived. I wondered how anyone could live in a place with so many easily breakable objects on main paths. Perhaps the disagreement between Soane and his son wasn’t just about Soane’s wife/George’s mother, but it could have been about an object broken either accidentally or purposefully. While I admire the house, I know for certain I could never live there, not unless I were allowed to remove a few objects for safety purposes.