Capriccio with the Pantheon before the Porto di Ripetta

Capriccio with the Pantheon before the Porto di Ripetta from 1761, now in the Liechtenstein Collection, combines two recognizable Roman landmarks in an imaginary composition that typifies Robert's capriccio approach. The Pantheon — the best-preserved of all ancient Roman buildings — and the Porto di Ripetta, the old river port on the Tiber, are brought together in a spatial relationship that never existed, creating an ideal architectural vision more compelling than any actual Roman view. Robert's capriccios represented a philosophical position as well as an aesthetic choice: by freely rearranging the monuments of the ancient world, he demonstrated that their significance lay not in topographic fact but in the ideas they embodied — the grandeur of Roman civilization, the pathos of ruin, the meditation on the relationship between past and present. The Liechtenstein Collection holds this early capriccio as a superb example of Robert's compositional invention in the period when his imagination was most freely engaged with the Roman material he had been absorbing for seven years. The handling shows his already confident technique for rendering classical architecture in warm Mediterranean light.

The architectural fantasy demonstrates Robert's confident handling of classical structures, using dramatic perspective and atmospheric light to create an imaginary but convincing Roman vista.