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Trajan's Column and a Renaissance Basilica Church

Hubert Robert (1733–1808)

French, Neoclassical
ca. 1785
223.52 cm x 113.03 cm (88 in. x 44 1/2 in.)
oil on canvas
HC.P.1922.05.(O)

Not on view


Permalink: http://museum.doaks.org/objects-1/info/811

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Description
One of a set of four pendant paintings by the French Neoclassical painter, Hubert Robert, this canvas combines two otherwise unrelated Roman monuments, Trajan’s column and a Renaissance domed basilica church in an imaginary, romantic manner typical of the artist. Trajan's Column was erected in Rome in 113 CE north of the Roman Forum to honor the emperor Trajan’s victory in the Dacian Wars, the events of which are represented in low relief on the sculptural bands that spiral around the column. The Basilica church, which has a Tuscan-order, ocatastyle portico and a hemispherical dome raised on a drum with triangular-pedimented windows, is unidentified and may be a pastiche or a fabricated reconstruction. The latter possibility is made more plausible by the fact that Robert has included a sculpture of the emperor Trajan atop the column, despite the fact that a statue of St. Peter had been placed there in 1588. In this painting, Robert also contrasts the grandeur of the Roman ruins with everyday, contemporary life: women drawing water and washing clothing.

This painting as well as HC.P.1922.03 originally included the signature H. Robert and HC.P.1922.03 and 04 originally had the date 1785. During cleaning and restoration at the Fogg Art Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1947, these inscriptions were found to be later additions to the paintings and were removed. This painting and its pendants are typical of "grand tour" paintings made in the eighteenth century, for more on which see HC.P.1934.71. For a discussion of the deterioration of the Hubert Robert paintings, see HC.P.1922.02; for the use of this painting and its pendants at Dumbarton Oaks, see HC.P.1922.03; and for the history of Hubert Robert, see HC.P.1922.04.

J. Carder


Bibliography
Dooley, William Germain. "Classical landscape." The Christian Science Monitor (September 9, 1972), 8, ill. P.22.5.


Acquisition History
Collection of Edmond Blanc, Marnes-la-Coquette, France, before 1920.

Collection of Jacques de Canson, Paris, before 4/26/1922.

Purchased from Jacques de Canson, Paris, through the Galerie Jamarin, Paris, and through the Ehrich Galleries, New York, New York, by Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss, 4/26/1922.

Collection of Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss, Washington, D.C., 4/26/1922-11/29/1940.

Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, House Collection, Washington, D.C.


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