Giovanni Paolo Panini

The Hon. Irwin Laughlin;

Sale, London, Christie’s, 1 December 1970, lot 144;

With Charles E. Slatkin Galleries, New York;

Sale, New York, Christie's, 31 January 2013, lot 57;

With Jean-Luc Baroni Ltd., London;

From whom acquired, 2014.

J.S. Herbert, ed., Christie’s Review of the Year, 1970/1971, illustrated p. 91

Giovanni Paolo Panini was an expert at combining various architectural motifs to produce elegant and convincing views that blended daily life with the monuments of the past. This was a time-honored artistic device, employed by everyone from medieval manuscript illuminators to 17th century Dutch landscape painters, but the demand for such capricci filled with images of important antique relics reached its height during the 18th century, as Grand Tourists sought to acquire paintings that captured the essence of the scenes and monuments that they had seen on their travels.

Here, in this fine capriccio, Panini, inspired by architectural ruins in the Roman Forum, cleverly stages his composition using the structure of the three columns on a pediment, akin to the great ruins of The Temple of Castor and Pollux, as a pictorial partition and as a platform where his animated figures can reside. Either side of this imposing ruin are broken fragments and columns where more figures converse enthusiastically. The artist’s initials, on the fragmented ruin to the far left, further serves to demonstrate that this was a work of art in its own right, executed to meet the great demand for these highly coveted graphic souvenirs.