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Hubert Robert

Architectural Fantasy, ca. 1802-1808

Now On View

Description

Maker

  • Hubert Robert, 1733-1808, French

Title

Architectural Fantasy

Year

ca. 1802-1808

Medium

Oil on canvas

Materials/Techniques

Materials

  • oil paint

Supports

  • canvas

Dimensions

114 x 147.8 cm (44 7/8 x 58 3/16 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Unsigned

Place

France

Type

  • Paintings

Credit

Museum Appropriation Fund

Object Number

37.104

About

Hubert Robert was the leading painter of architectural ruins in the second half of the 18th century. He learned the principles of Italian view painting while studying at the French Academy in Rome, where he produced numerous drawings of antique monuments, palaces, and gardens. Robert’s Architectural Fantasy represents a convention in which actual buildings were recombined to create an imaginative view. The coffered vaults of the bridge resemble those of the Basilica of Maxentius, and the bridge itself relates to Robert’s drawings of Rome’s Villa Madama. The magnificent construction is decorated with famous antique sculptures, such as the Horses of San Marco, the Apollo Belvedere, and the Venus de’ Medici. Informed by the dramatic perspectives Robert admired in contemporary etchings, it offers antiquarian detail in a setting that awes, instructs, and ultimately deceives the viewer into accepting it as history.

Unsigned

France
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Projects & Publications

Publications

European Paintings and Sculpture, ca. 1770 - 1937

A Handbook of the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Intermission

December 16, 2016 - July 2, 2017

From the Reserve I

April 9 - August 3, 1994

European Painting and Sculpture, circa 1770-1937

October 18, 1991 - January 26, 1992

Masterpieces from the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design

July 18 - September 14, 1979

Raid the Icebox 1 with Andy Warhol

April 23 - June 30, 1970

European Galleries

Hubert Robert produced many studies of classical monuments, palaces, and gardens in Rome, later recombining them in architectural fantasies. In this composition, the bridge evokes one that abutted Rome’s Villa Madama; its coffered vaults recall the Basilica of Maxentius. Crowned by a structure that includes elements of the Louvre Palace in Paris, it also presents a virtual museum of antique sculptures including the Laocoön, the Horses of San Marco, the Apollo Belvedere, and the Venus de’ Medici. Its soaring perspective and antiquarian details awe, instruct, and ultimately deceive viewers into accepting this imaginary view as a site that once existed in history.

Raid the Icebox 1 with Andy Warhol

Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in the public domain (CC0 1.0). This object is Architectural Fantasy with the accession number of 37.104. To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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