Circle of Giovanni Paolo Panini

Relined. painting is presentable and can be hung in its present state. there is some slight thinness in the darks, but generally there is good retention of the paint surface and painting reads very well and presents a strong image. under ultraviolet light, one can see two old repaired tears at upper right: one in top of the architecture and another in the sky just to the left of the architecture. another old repaired diagonal tear can be seen in the sky and architecture at far middle right. there are two areas of retouching over what appear to be old repaired punctures in rocks at lower center just above cloaked figure. there are some other smaller retouches scattered here and there. In a carved and gilt wood frame with some nicks and loss to the gilding.
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Though a fine painter of real views of Rome, it was Panini's fanciful capricci of architectural ruins and palazzi which secured his international fame and popularity and which left an indelible mark on European landscape painting, inspiring a number of important French and Italian artists. 

The present canvas represents a striking and skillful rendition of Panini's stylised and picturesque topography. In contrast to the precise landscape aesthetic of Bellotto or Vanvitelli, known architectural monuments are here integrated into an imagined arrangement, whimsically illuminated by a broad, radiant sky.

The scene is that of Alexander at the Tomb of Achilles, with Alexander the Great in blue on the left signalling to soldiers on the right who struggle to lever off the lid of the porphyry tomb with a pole. Panini chose the same subject for his reception piece for the Accademia di San Luca (see F. Arisi, Giovanni Paolo Panini 1691-1765, Milan, 1993). In the left foreground the artist incoporates a statue inspired by one of the Horsetamers on the Quirinal Hill and in the left middle ground the Pyramid of Cestius.