.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Robert arrived in Rome in 1754, at the age of twenty-two, in the entourage of the newly appointed French Ambassador to the Holy See, the comte de Stainville, later duc de Choiseul. Having studied in Paris at the prestigious Collège de Navarre where he became an able Latinist and developed a youthful fascination with the ancient world, Robert was exposed in Italy to the monuments of antiquity that were to provide his lifelong artistic inspiration and earn him the sobriquet 'Robert des Ruines'.
Painted towards the end of his eleven-year sojourn in Italy, the present picture reveals Robert's debt to the engraver Piranesi and to the ruin painter Panini, both of whom he met through his unofficial attachment to the French Academy in Rome. In 1760, he was commissioned by the Abbé de Saint-Non, the well-known antiquarian, to draw copies of the Greek, Roman and Eqyptian antiquities that Saint-Non later used to illustrate his de luxe guidebooks of Italian cities and their works of art. It was customary for Robert to employ ancient monuments in his imaginary view paintings and in this composition the pyramid is clearly inspired by the pyramid of Caius Sestius, while the double-tiered doric portico is taken from the entrance to the Pantheon. The picture also allows an insight into the artist's working technique. Various pentimenti are visible in both of the left hand figure groups and, similarly, it is apparent that the pyramid has been scaled down and moved to the right edge of the composition.
Painted towards the end of his eleven-year sojourn in Italy, the present picture reveals Robert's debt to the engraver Piranesi and to the ruin painter Panini, both of whom he met through his unofficial attachment to the French Academy in Rome. In 1760, he was commissioned by the Abbé de Saint-Non, the well-known antiquarian, to draw copies of the Greek, Roman and Eqyptian antiquities that Saint-Non later used to illustrate his de luxe guidebooks of Italian cities and their works of art. It was customary for Robert to employ ancient monuments in his imaginary view paintings and in this composition the pyramid is clearly inspired by the pyramid of Caius Sestius, while the double-tiered doric portico is taken from the entrance to the Pantheon. The picture also allows an insight into the artist's working technique. Various pentimenti are visible in both of the left hand figure groups and, similarly, it is apparent that the pyramid has been scaled down and moved to the right edge of the composition.