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Hubert Robert
The Finding of the Laocoon, 1773
The ancient sculpture known as the Laocoon is one of the most famous antiquities in existence. It was unearthed in 1506 in a vineyard that had been planted over the ruins of Nero's Golden House in Rome; the excavation was attended by the young Michelangelo, who immediately recognized it as the famous lost work.
Hubert Robert, however, has placed the event in an immense imaginary vaulted ruin. Robert created this elaborate allegory on art and collecting for the Comte de Vaudreuil, a great collector whose portrait by Elisabeth-Louise Vigee-Lebrun is also in the museum's collection and can be seen nearby. |