Giovanni Paolo Panini

Anonymous sale, New York, Christie's, 5 June 1980, lot 47;
Probably private collection, Rome, 1986 (see Arisi, under Literature);
With The Walpole Gallery, London, 1989;
With Cesare Lampronti, Rome, 2000;
Anonymous sale, New York, Christie's, 24 January 2003, lot 64, where acquired by the present collector.

London, The Walpole Gallery, Italian Landscapes and Vedute, 1989.

Probably F. Arisi, Gian Paolo Panini e i fasti della Roma del '700, Rome 1986, p. 409, under cat. no. 357 (as signed and dated 1735);
Italian Landscapes and Vedute, London, The Walpole Gallery, 1989, p. 52.

The following condition report is provided by Sarah Walden, who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting has a strong old stretcher and fairly old lining. The beautifully unworn quality of the paint surface and richness of the darks is rare. There are some small surface touches scattered across the sky, mainly in the darker parts such as the blues near the upper right corner, also in the top left corner with some along the base edge also and one rather larger retouching by the inscribed slab and seated figure near the right base corner. The ruins and lower part of the painting is very finely intact but throughout the brushwork is full and richly undessicated, never having been subjected to overcleaning. This report was not done under laboratory conditions.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Giovanni Paolo Panini was the most popular and celebrated view-painter in Rome in the 18th century. His views of ancient and modern Rome inspired foreign visitors to the city, especially those on the Grand Tour, and his paintings are characterised by their accurate portrayal of the city’s most popular, picturesque sites (though often juxtaposed in imaginary ways). He was elected to the Congregazioni dei Virtuosi del Pantheon in 1718 and became a member of the Accademia di San Luca in the following year, going on to become Principe there in 1754 and 1755. Panini’s success persisted throughout the second and third quarter of the 18th century and he met the growing demand for his vedute with an extensive workshop, to which Hubert Robert and Panini’s own son Francesco also belonged.

This capriccio is known in a number of autograph and workshop variants, attesting to the composition’s popularity among Panini’s patrons, but the present work is by far the best of the known variants and is the only one that is signed and dated (1736), thereby suggesting that it is the prime version upon which all the others are based. In the 2003 Christie’s catalogue the painting was erroneously identified with the work published and reproduced by Ferdinando Arisi in his monograph (as cat. no. 357): this is not the same picture but may instead be the painting to which Arisi refers in that same catalogue entry, even if erroneously described as signed and dated 1735 (instead of 1736). Arisi considered that work to be the prototype for all the known variants.¹ At least three nearly identical versions are known: one, signed with the artist’s monogram, was sold at Sotheby’s, Milan, 2 December 2003, lot 126 (oil on canvas, 80 by 112 cm.); a second was in a private collection, Piacenza (oil on canvas, 78 by 88 cm.); and a third was sold as one of a pair at Christie’s, London, 23 March 1973, lot 92 (44.5 by 77.5 cm.).² This painting may also once have hung alongisde a pendant showing A capriccio with ancient ruins and the Maison Carrée at Nîmes.³

Although most of the individual buildings and monuments in this scene are identifiable their compositional arrangement is entirely fantastical, and this is wholly characteristic of Panini’s capricci. Framing the composition at the far left is the Temple of Hadrian, whose Corinthian-columned portico appears sharply foreshortened.⁴ The composition is dominated by the imposing structure of the Flaminian Obelisk, whose strong vertical divides the painting into two parts. The obelisk, made of red granite and measuring 26 metres in height (36 metres including its pedestal), dates from the 19th Dynasty: three sides of it were decorated by the Pharaoh Seti I (reigned 1318-1304 B.C.E.) and the fourth by his son Ramses II (reigned 1304-1237 B.C.E.). It was originally erected in the Sun Temple at Heliopolis, the then-capital of ancient Egypt, but was removed by Octavianus after the Roman conquest of Egypt in 31 B.C.E.. The obelisk stands today at the centre of the Piazza del Popolo in Rome. To the left of the obelisk, in the far distance, we can make out the top two registers of the Colosseum whilst to the right, and slightly closer to the viewer, is the Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine.⁵ The far right of the composition is framed by the Temple of Fortuna Virilis (or Temple of Portunus), with its Ionic-columned portico, and the magnificent porphyry sarcophagus standing before it, painted by Panini with such meticulous accuracy, is that of Costantina. Sculpted in around 340 A.D. the sarcophagus was originally in the Mausoleo di Santa Costanza and is now housed at the Museo Pio-Clementino in the Vatican.

The cool, clear tones of this painting are predominantly achieved through the large portion of sky in this painting. The austere and imposing structures of the ancient ruins contrast with the gesticulating figures that populate the scene. The men and women in the foreground are convincingly portrayed and a number of smaller figures (and a dog) are scattered throughout the landscape beyond. This capriccio is a supreme example of the genre in which Panini was to excel and the type of picture he would paint throughout his career, with considerable resulting success.

A preparatory drawing for the seated woman seen in profile lower left is in the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin (inv. no. 17538).

1. See F. Arisi, under Literature, p. 409, under cat. no. 357: ‘In collezione private romana è conservata una versione (olio su tela, m. 0,78 x 1,065) firmata e datata 1735 che si deve considerare il prototipo’.
2. Arisi, op. cit., considered the last of these to be a studio variant and lists further studio versions in the Kress Collection, in the Columbia Museum of Art, and another in a French private collection).
3. See, for example, the painting in Arisi, op. cit., p. 410, cat. no. 358, reproduced.
4. Built in 145 A.D., only one wall of the temple survives and that has been incorporated into a later building in the Piazza di Pietra; a piazza whose name derives from the temple’s stones that were used to build it.
5. The amphitheatre in the left distance is probably intended to be the Colosseum although its elongated arches are closer to those of the Theatre of Marcellus. The Basilica Maxentius is a supreme example of Roman engineering: the central nave was constructed solely of arches, unlike other ancient basilicas where columns are used to support the ceiling.