A Capriccio of Roman Architecture
Hubert Robert (1733-1808) was a French painter in the school of Romanticism, noted especially for his landscape paintings and capricci, or semi-fictitious picturesque depictions of ruins in Italy and of France.
The subject of this painting has been described as the Loggia at the Vatican or alternatively as the Villa Albani, however the scene is almost certainly a capriccio, an imaginative composition. In fact, the picture comprises elements of both buildings, while the courtyard and arcade recall the Palazzo Farnese. In the foreground a young artist in a flamboyant hat is studying the Apollo Belvedere.
Hubert Robert spent 11 years in Italy, where he developed a taste for painting and drawing monuments and ruins, both real and imaginary. He is considered a leading exponent of the painted capriccio.