Gian Paolo Panini

Laid down on a board. Drawn on two sheets of paper joined towards the right side, slightly visible. Two old folds not noticeable, one running vertically at the end of the sheet to the left, the other running horizontaly at the top. Some small losses of paper due to silver fish , only one of these at the top towards the center left, has produced a small hole, the other being superficial losses of paper surface, these are to the right, along the line where the two paper are joined together on the upper part of the sheet and very small towards the left margin. The two small losses upper center seems to have been touched up at some point with some white heightening. Overall the drawing is in good condition and there is slight foxing, hardly visible, and colours are overall fresh and paper is not discolored. Sold in a wooden gilded modern frame.
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This magnificent large, colored drawing shows an animated multitude of elegant figures conversing, while observing the erection of the scaffolding that was to be used in the restoration of the Temple of Castor and Pollux, one of the most famous buildings in the Roman Forum.  It is a rare, late drawing by the Panini, surely executed as a work in its own right.  

In 1760, the columns of the temple of Castor and Pollux were recognized to be in a state of imminent collapse, and so scaffolding was erected to permit their stabilization and restoration.  This date is therefore the terminus post quem for the execution of the present drawing, meaning that it dates from the last five years of Panini's life.  It is possible that the drawing records a specific event, when many people crowded in front of the temple, but more likely that it depicts an essentially fictional scene, using the ancient monuments of the Forum to suit the artist's compositional aims, almost like a stage set.  Though essentially a fantasy view, the overall impression of the Roman Forum that this composition conveys is not dissimilar to that seen in a number of topographically accurate views by Panini, depicting the Forum seen from the Clivus Capitolinus, which the artist painted in several versions, between 1725 and 1750.¹ 

In the latter part of his career, Panini seem to have been increasingly inclined to use famous ancient buildings and monuments almost decoratively, as motifs within imaginary views.  In the present drawing, Panini has placed the temple of Castor and Pollux slightly in front of the column of Phocas, at the center of the whole composition, which clearly focuses on the erection of the scaffolding.  To the far left, framing the view almost like a stage curtain, the artist has included a tall, narrow section of the Arch of Septimus Severus, which leads to the Senate Curia, a motif that is balanced to the extreme right by the Temple of Saturn.  In the background we find a semicircle of other ancient buildings: part of the Basilica of Maxentius, the Colosseum and the arches of Titus and Constantine.  Meanwhile, the beautifully drawn figures, particularly prominent in the foreground, make a respectful circle around the primary subject of both the composition and the restoration: the Temple of Castor and Pollux. 

In his own time, the demand for Panini's painted and drawn views was enormous, and spectacular, colored drawings such as this were extremely expensive (see also lots....).   In 1739 the Marchese Capponi in Florence appears to have paid 200 scudi for a drawing by Panini of the Palazzo della Consulta, Rome, whereas at the same time a good oil by Vanvitelli was worth only around 15 scudi.²  Panini's drawings, so highly finished and colored, were treated like paintings, and were therefore often framed and hung on the wall.  Although dating from a different moment in the artist's career, the present sheet can be compared to the large Panini sheet of the Lottery in Piazza di Montecitorio, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.³  The Metropolitan drawing is preparatory for a painting of this subject, now in the National Gallery, London,⁴ executed for Cardinal Domenico Orsini around the 1740s.  Although these two works were executed at very different moments in the artist's career, they are both large colored sheets representing real events, which share a great variety of characterization within the crowds.  The present work does not seem to be preparatory for any surviving painting by the artist, and shows that the demand for elaborate, finished drawings executed for their own sake continued until the last years of Panini's life.


1.  F. Arisi, Gian Paolo Panini, Piacenza 1961, p. 147, no. 98, reproduced fig. 149
2.  Paris, Musée du Louvre, et al., Pannini, 1992-93, p. 84
3.  Rogers Fund, 1968, inv. no. 68.53;  J. Bean and W. Griswold, 18th-Century Italian Drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 1990, p. 159, no. 150, reproduced pp. 160-61
4.  Inv. no. NG6605