Christ Driving the Money Changers out of the Temple

Hubert Robert's Christ Driving the Money Changers from the Temple belongs to the small group of religious subjects he treated alongside his dominant secular production. The subject — Christ overturning the tables of moneychangers in the Jerusalem Temple — had a long history in European painting from El Greco to Rembrandt. Robert's version is unusual given his specialization, and likely reflects either a specific commission or his interest in the subject's dramatic architectural setting, which provided opportunity to depict a monumental temple interior in the manner of his ruin capriccios.

The temple interior likely displays Robert's architectural imagination at full stretch — colonnades, vaults, and dramatic spatial recession forming the backdrop to the violent action. His treatment of light filtering through architectural openings gives the scene its characteristic luminosity.