The poetic of ruins: Diderot and Robert’s paintings in the Salon de 1767

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to show that Diderot’s admiration of the depictions of ruins of ancient structures, presented by Hubert Robert in the exhibition hosted by the Parisian Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in 1767, was not without reservations. This, in turn, sheds light on the significance of what the philosopher named “the poetry of ruins” and, on a more general level, on the connection he established between nature and art in his works on aesthetics. Additionally, this paper underlines a series of tensions engendered by the Salon de 1767, considering what Diderot explored in other writings.