Patrick Hughes
b. 1939 | British

A Study of the Stuidolo

Oil on board construction

Part painting, part sculpture and part optical illusion, this work measures nearly 110 inches across and immerses the viewer in the famed 15th-century Studiolo housed in the Ducal Palace in Gubbio, Italy. Plunging the viewer into the room through his work's immense size, Hughes heightens the viewer's experience by building his distinctive board constructions to mimic the contours of the room, creating an unusual dimensionality that both mirrors and diverges from reality. Intended for meditation and study, the Studiolo was designed by Francesco di Giorgio Martini, a Sienese architect and engineer of the Italian Renaissance. Presently housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the interior is familiar to previous visitors to the collection, yet the perceptual distortions that arise from Hughes’ composition make it seem otherworldly.