Giovanni Paolo Panini

(Piacenza circa 1692-1765 Rome)

An architectural capriccio

Footnotes

PROVENANCE:
With Antichità Taccani, Milan
Acquired by the present owner's father in the 1980s and thence by descent

LITERATURE:
F. Arisi, Giovanni Paolo Panini e i fasti della Roma del Settecento (Rome, 1986), cat. no. 456, p. 457 (ill.)

Vedute ideate, fanciful depictions of the Roman forum in which the most famous monuments of antiquity were juxtaposed with little consideration for either historic or topographical accuracy, are the works for which Panini became famous during his lifetime and for which he still remains best known.

As is typical for the artist's oeuvre, the ruins in the present painting are readily identifiable. From left to right one can recognise the Temple of Saturn (501-493 B.C.), the Arch of Titus (ca. 81 A.D.) and the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius (176 A.D.); the Temple of Minerva Medica and the Temple of Fortuna Virilis (early 1st century B.C.) far right. Various architectural fragments are scattered across the foreground, populated by conversing classical figures.

Panini frequently revived entire compositions or portions of them: very similar groups of buildings feature in two capricci dated 1739 and 1741 (respectively in a Roman private collection and in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool); although the lighter tones and the freer brushstrokes characteristic of the present veduta suggest a later date for the work. Even more common was the repetition of individual motifs: the Arch of Titus appears in approximately eleven other paintings, and the Temple of Fortuna Virilis is included in at least sixteen others. Also the figure of the young man seated to the left of the Temple of Saturn, appears in other compositions.

Panini's inventive and infinitely variable combinations of monuments allowed the contemporary viewer to delight in identifying motifs from an unexpected context. With his compilations, the artist displayed a desire to glorify the remnants of the city's classical past, as well as a didactic aim, which became especially popular with English and French tourists to Rome, who commissioned specific vedute from the artist, as evocative souvenirs of the classical sites visited during their Grand Tours.