The Soane Museum Study Group is an open forum for scholars – both established and emerging – to present new research into an aspect of architectural history and/or Soane’s collection.
Adriano Aymonino - Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny, Taste and the Antique. The Lure of Classical Sculpture: 1500-1900: An Art history Classic Forty Years On
Taste and the Antique. The Lure of Classical Sculpture: 1500-1900, published by Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny in 1981, has become an art history classic that has shaped the field’s direction over four decades, influencing both academic research and curatorial practices. This session discusses a new revised and expanded three-volume edition published in December 2024. The new edition substantially updates the scholarship with research from recent decades, while broadening the exploration of these works’ reception and influence, from Renaissance collectors to contemporary artists. It particularly examines how classical statues influenced European imagery beyond direct replication, including:
- Their adaptation across diverse media
- Their impact on art and architectural theory and pedagogy
- Their influence on anatomical study and proportional theory
- Their role in Modernist culture and modern / Postmodern popular culture
- Their enduring presence in contemporary imagery and conceptions of the human body
The session will illustrate the reception of Taste and the Antique over the last four decades, discuss the new features compared to the first edition (with a specific focus on Sir John Soane's Museum's collections), and assess the current state of research, as well as future research perspectives.
The talk will be followed by a session in the Soane Museum research library to peruse a selection of volumes relevant to this subject from Soane’s library.
About the speaker
Dr Adriano Aymonino is Director of the MA programme on the Art Market, Provenance and the History of Collecting at the University of Buckingham. His publications include Drawn from the Antique (Sir John Soane’s Museum, 2015); Enlightened Eclecticism (Yale University Press, 2021 – winner of the 2022 William MB Berger Prize for British Art History) and a revised and updated edition of Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny’s Taste and the Antique (Brepols, 3 vols, 2024, with Eloisa Dodero). He is currently working on a critical edition of Robert and James Adam's Grand Tour correspondence (Sir John Soane’s Museum, 2025), and on a new book, Paper Marbles: Pier Leone Ghezzi’s “Studio di Molte Pietre”, 1726 (MIT Press 2026). He is a member of the advisory councils of the Museo del Bargello in Florence, and of the Attingham Trust.
Event details
- Wednesday 22 October 2025, 18:00 - 19:30
- Drinks reception 18:00, talk begins at 18:30
- On arrival, please come to No. 14 Lincoln’s Inn Fields. The door will be staffed from 18:00
- Your email confirmation serves as your ticket