Explore Collections
You are here:
CollectionsOnline
/
Pandora, whom the assembled Gods / endowed with all their gifts. / Formed by Vulcan, who is contemplating / his work, she is dressed by the Graces, / and presented by Minerva with a Veil / and Cestus;- near her stands Pitho, / (the Goddess of Persuasion) - on the left / are Phoebus, Diana, Mars, Venus, & / Cupid; - on the right, Juno, Cybele, / and Bacchus; - in the midst Jupiter, / attended by Victory, and Nemesis, holds / the fatal Vase, fraught with so much / mischief to Mankind. Iris is hovering / in the sky admiring, and Mercury, / putting on his Talaria prepares to conduct / the beautiful Snare to "th' unwiser Son of Japhet".
Browse
SM P2. ©Sir John Soane's Museum, London. Photo: Art UK
Henry Howard RA (1769 - 1847)
Pandora, whom the assembled Gods / endowed with all their gifts. / Formed by Vulcan, who is contemplating / his work, she is dressed by the Graces, / and presented by Minerva with a Veil / and Cestus;- near her stands Pitho, / (the Goddess of Persuasion) - on the left / are Phoebus, Diana, Mars, Venus, & / Cupid; - on the right, Juno, Cybele, / and Bacchus; - in the midst Jupiter, / attended by Victory, and Nemesis, holds / the fatal Vase, fraught with so much / mischief to Mankind. Iris is hovering / in the sky admiring, and Mercury, / putting on his Talaria prepares to conduct / the beautiful Snare to "th' unwiser Son of Japhet".
1834
Oil on mahogany panel
Height: 82cm
Width: 249cm
Width: 249cm
Inscription: None
Museum number: P2
On display: Library-Dining Room - ceiling
All spaces are in No. 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields unless identified as in No. 12, Soane's first house.
For tours https://www.soane.org/your-visit
Curatorial note
Fixed within a recess in the ceiling of the Library; held in place by ball moulding surrounding the panel. The 1837 inventory describes it as 'On mahogany panel, in gilt frame'.
Provenance
Commissioned from the artist in 1834.
Literature
Soane, Description, 1835, p.7
Bolton, A. T. (ed.), Portrait, 1927
Bryan's Dictionary of painters and engravers, 1904
Haydon, B. R., Autobiography and Memoirs, 1926
Mattenklot. G., 'Krug, Buchse und Kastchen Bilker Pandora', Austria, 1992, ill. 13
Panofsky, D. and E., Pandora's Box, London, 1956, reprd. figs. 50 and 51
Redgrave, R. and S., A century of British Painters, London 1947.
Summerson, J. and Watkin, D., John Soane, Academy Editions, London, 1983, ill. 20.
Watkin, D., Sir John Soane, Enlightenment Thought and Royal Academy Lectures, 1996, pp.417-418
Bolton, A. T. (ed.), Portrait, 1927
Bryan's Dictionary of painters and engravers, 1904
Haydon, B. R., Autobiography and Memoirs, 1926
Mattenklot. G., 'Krug, Buchse und Kastchen Bilker Pandora', Austria, 1992, ill. 13
Panofsky, D. and E., Pandora's Box, London, 1956, reprd. figs. 50 and 51
Redgrave, R. and S., A century of British Painters, London 1947.
Summerson, J. and Watkin, D., John Soane, Academy Editions, London, 1983, ill. 20.
Watkin, D., Sir John Soane, Enlightenment Thought and Royal Academy Lectures, 1996, pp.417-418
Exhibition history
Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1835
Soane collections online is being continually updated. If you wish to find out more or if you have any further information about this object please contact us: worksofart@soane.org.uk