Crumbling is not an instant’s act
Alexander Adams | The Critic | 19th March 2022
Architectural drawings are a niche taste, offering perspective and alluring detail but without art’s expressiveness. The Regency architect Sir John Soane was an avid collector, especially of drawings depicting “fantasies, alternative realities, and lost glories”. Ruins were a favourite. Should we consider these “lost glories” or just ordinary structures romanticized by time? As for Soane’s own buildings, most have gone, “burned away like mist, while the ruins of Rome live on.”