Ut Pictura Poesis (1745–1746): Art, History and Details

Ut Pictura Poesis (1745–1746) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Charles-François Hutin (French, 1715–1776).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Hutin’s drawing is an allegorical celebration of academic artistic training. The words UT PICTURA POESIS engraved on the stone tablet translate “as is painting, so is poetry.” Classical figures throughout the grand hall discuss their work as they practice different methods of making images. In the foreground, putti sculpt a portrait bust of Louis XV; behind them artists practice drawing a nude model. Among the sculptures in the room are the Farnese Hercules and the Venus de’ Medici, both famous Roman marbles in Italy, where Hutin trained from 1737 to 1742. In the upper right, Fame flies with trumpets above Minerva, the patron goddess of the arts, holding a paintbrush and palette as she drives out Ignorance and Envy.

Object facts

• Title: Ut Pictura Poesis
• Date: 1745–1746
• Creator attribution: Charles-François Hutin (French, 1715–1776)
• Culture: France
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: Gray wash, watercolor, graphite, black chalk, and red chalk on cream laid paper
• Dimensions: Sheet: 53.2 x 38 cm (20 15/16 x 14 15/16 in.)
• Collection: DR - French
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 1998.76

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Foster, Carter E. "Jean-Bernard Restout's "Sleep: Figure Study": Painting and Drawing from Life at the French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture." Cleveland Studies in the History of Art 3 (1998): 48-85.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.