This spectacular, large view of the Piazza di Montecitorio, Rome, shows a crowd awaiting the results of a lottery draw that is taking place on the central balcony above the entrance to the Palazzo di Montecitorio. The same subject is known from a similar, though smaller (340 by 545mm), watercolour by Panini of around 1743-4, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art,¹ which relates to a painting in the National Gallery, London.² The subject of all these works is the drawing of the popular Roman lottery, which was made on the balcony of the Palazzo di Montecitorio. Lotteries, which were much loved by the Roman populace, were long banned from the Papal States, but were reinstated in 1731 by Pope Clemens XII (Lorenzo Corsini, 1730-1740) in a moment of financial difficulty.³

The present watercolour and the one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art are among the most complete and highly finished sheets that the artist ever created, and were clearly executed as works of art in their own right, though at very different times in Panini's career. Compositionally, the most important difference between the present sheet and the other views, including the oil, is the inclusion here to the left hand side - at the corner of the Palazzo Capranica Macchi di Cellere - of the decorative cartouche inscribed in capital letters: CALCOG[RAFIA]. The Calcografia della Reverenda Camera Apostolica (the Papal print publication house) was instituted in 1738, after the acquisition by Pope Clemens XII (Corsini, 1730-1740) of the historic Rossi print publishers. In 1762, the Calcografia moved from its first site to three rooms on the ground floor of the Palazzo of Bartolomeo Capranica (where it remained until 1780), so the sign that we see proudly displayed here provides a firm terminus post quem for the execution of the present watercolour,⁴ which may, indeed, have been commissioned to commemorate the Calcografia's move to new premises.

The Palazzo di Montecitorio was known in Panini's day as the Curia Innocenziana, for its connection with Popes Innocent XI (Odescalchi, 1676-1689) and Innocent XII (Pignatelli, 1691-1700). It was commissioned from Bernini by Innocent XI but later built according to the design of the architect Carlo Fontana for Innocent XII. Its balcony was the official site of the Lottery, which continued until the abolition of the Papal States in 1870. To the right of the Palazzo Montecitorio, facing the column of Marcus Aurelius, is the lower Palazzo Chigi. Though the view is quite accurate, Panini has taken some liberties, showing, for instance, the entire Column of Marcus Aurelius which in fact was obscured at the time by buildings separating the Piazza Colonna from the Piazza di Montecitorio. To the right foreground is the elaborate base in white marble of the Column of Antoninus Pius, excavated near the Palazzo in 1703 and installed in the centre of Piazza di Montecitorio, where it remained until 1764.⁵

The clear addition to the right of the Palazzo of Bartolomeo Capranica, only slightly indicated on the oil version in the National Gallery, encloses the view, adding a further and important historic element to the animated square.

Though the watercolour in the Metropolitan Museum has been identified, thanks to its subject, by Simonetta Prosperi Valenti Rodinò as one of six Paninis acquired by the painter Giuseppe Bossi (1777-1815), mentioned in his Memoires of June 26, 1810, it is also possible that the present sheet is the one referred to by the painter in these journals as Monte Citorio coll’estrazione del Lotto (see note 1).

1. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. no. 68.53. This has been identified by Simonetta Prosperi Valenti Rodinò as one of six Paninis acquired by the painter Giuseppe Bossi, described in his Memoires of June 26, 1810: Ho acquistato sei stupendi Pannini rappresentanti Monte Cavallo, il Corso, l’atrio della rottura della Porta Santa, Monte Citorio coll’estrazione del Lotto e in forma minore due vedute del Colosseo, tutto per s.[oldi] 18. (I just bought six beautiful Panninis depicting Montecavallo, the Via del Corso, the broken atrium of the Porta Santa, Monte Citorio with the Lottery Game, and some minor views of the Colosseum, all for 18 soldi).

2. London, National Gallery, inv. NG6605. The painting, formerly in the Norman Colville collection, was commissioned by Cardinal Domenico Orsini (1719-1789; created September, 1743) and dates to the same time as the Metropolitan Museum watercolour

3. James David Draper, 'The Lottery in Piazza di Montecitorio,' Master Drawings, vol. 7, no. 1, 1969, p. 27

4. Giulia De Marchi, Il Palazzo della Calcografia, Roma 2002, chapter 1 ('La situazione precedente alla costruzione')

5. Taken to the Vatican in 1787, and today housed in the Cortile della Pigna, Palazzi Vaticani