HUBERT ROBERT
(Parigi, 1733 - 1808)
Capriccio architettonico con figure
Olio su tela, cm 37x43
The master, Parisian by origin and culture but practically naturalized Roman, represents the culmination of landscape painting with ruins in Rome during the 18th century, following the examples of the great Giovanni Paolo Panini and preceding the genre's development in a more strictly Neoclassical or Romantic context.
Facing a monumental ruin, presumably intended as a portico, whose entablature, particularly projecting and imposing, is emphasized by a bas-relief frieze, a cluster of "figures" rests on abandoned ancient fragments on the ground: among them stands out a figure, delineated with a marked and elegant elongation of the body, that seems poised to illustrate the grandiose ruin to the group of figures.
The background is dominated by the ruins of a complex, probably a bath; as a complement, the majestic sky is outlined by the tree line, defined by a rather dark green, on the right margin.
The canvas is representative of Hubert Robert's youthful style in his early Roman years, presumably around 1760: the dense chromatic mixture, in which rather somber, highly suggestive tones predominate, alongside warmer accents of pinkish highlights, absolutely characteristic of the French master, and the attention, still of Paninian taste, to the definition of the small figures, are particularly striking.
