Hubert Robert

That was a gift to John Soane's at, at the end of his term as architect for the Bank of England.

And so I think artists, I mean, in the 18th century particularly, looked at, uh, Hubert Robert draws himself in the Louvre in the like 1727 as, um, as the Louvre as, as a future ruin.

So I think a lot of people-

Yeah, with the, the ceiling opened and then-

Ruins were always associated with romanticism.

Think of the paintings, for example, of Hubert Robert, the French painter from the 18th and 19th century, painter of ruins, wondrous paintings of ruins.

I love the paintings of Hubert Robert.

or Hubert Robert, if you want to use the English pronunciation.

So I think there is an association of romanticism here, especially with the final images in that first paragraph.

A triumphal arch erected laboriously by dwarfs, this idea of a promised retreat beyond this ruined door, the gateway to a forbidden domain, a lair of sorcerers.