I nuovi paesaggi di Albert Robida in Provenza

THE NEW LANDSCAPES OF ALBERT ROBIDA IN PROVENCE At the end of the eighteenth century, with the invention of lithography and its widespread use, they began a series of projects entitled“Les voyages pittoresque et romantiques dans l’ancienne France”. Between 1828 and 1866 are sent designers, engravers and lithographers, often of considerable talent, throughout the French territory in order to document – graphically - cultural, landscape and monumental appearance. Among these, significant is the work of Albert Robida which represents the link between the communication of the eighteenth century epoch landscape and the conception of the mass trip that will be developed later. His work, straddling two epochs, benefits from knowledge of the historical, geographical and literary of past periods, inherent in the area in question and which appropriates translating them into an objective reading of the built environment. The brief essay wants to be a reflection aimed at understanding the transformation of the graphical representation of the landscape, which from the second half of the nineteenth century has evolved by feeding on intrinsic values and identitary of the places, sought drawings, quick sketches and watercolors made on-site are the carnets of travel. Whatever style of representation or age, send us the instant of discovery as well as the traveler emotions, his personal vision of the places. La Provence, thanks to its peculiarities, as always, is a region propitious to artistic creation and inexhaustible source of stimuli from any context you look at it. The tale of Robida is not a travel journal with personal impressions and therefore not even the exploration of unknown places. It is a reading of the landscape no formalized from predetermined itineraries, or with personal comments that may affect the reader, but rather a look cultured on Provence that stimulates the curiosity of the traveler and leaves you free to interpret it according to our culture and state of ' mood. Robida shows us what he has seen and reveals useful information for better look, understand, feed their own imagination and make new discoveries. Comparing the work of A. Robida and current manifestations of landscape representation, which occurs in the Carnets, we can identify a common thread that connects them. While also changing the type of approach to visual understanding of the environment due to the transformation of the approach models to the nature and to the various landscapes, it remains close to the feeling of approaching the essence of the same and the understanding of the profound bond that unites the drawing to the territory, design aimed at represent reality and keep both memory and specificity.