Gian Paolo Panini

piacenza 1691 – 1765 rome
figures conversing among roman ruins
72 x 79.5 cm., oil on canvas

• Exhibition:
• SFO Airport Museum, All Roads Lead to Rome: 17th-19th Century Souvenirs from the Collection of Piraneseum,
  January 24-August 13, 2017

An absolutely characteristic, mature work by Gian Paolo Panini, this painting pictures an imaginary grouping of ruins of the Temple of Vespasian, Trajan’s Column, and the Arch of Janus. This uncatalogued view may be compared with numbers 430 and 431 in Ferdinando Arisi’s 1986 Gian Paolo Panini e i facti della Roman del ‘700. The latter picture, Predica di Un Apostolo, is especially similar, though it includes an additional architectural element, the Pyramid of Caius Cestius. The figures in our painting may be compared with number 433, Predica di Una Sibilla, a picture signed by Panini.

Panini’s paintings are included in the collections of the Hermitage, Louvre, and Prado.