In this timely and provocative study, Hubert Robert"s paintings of urban ruins are interpreted as manifestations of a new consciousness of time, one shaped by the uncertainties of an economy characterized by the dread-inducing expansion of credit, frenzied speculation on the stock exchange, and bold ventures in real estate. As the favored artist of an enterprising Parisian elite, Robert is a prophetic case study of the intersections between aesthetics and modernity"s dawning business culture.
At the center of this lively narrative lie Robert"s depictions of the ruins of Paris - macabre and spectacular paintings of fires and demolitions created on the eve of the French Revolution. Drawing on a vast range of materials, "Futures & Ruins" understands these artworks as harbingers of a modern appetite for destruction. The paintings are examined as expressions of the pleasures and perils of a risk economy. This captivating account - lavishly illustrated with rarely reproduced objects - recovers the critical significance of the eighteenth-century cult of ruins and of Robert"s art for our times. Это и многое другое вы найдете в книге Futures & Ruins: Eighteenth-Century Paris and the Art of Hubert Robert (Nina L. Dubin)