Giovanni Paolo Panini

Acquired by Sir Robert Hildyard (1716-1781), 3^rd Bt., M.P., of Winestead, probably on his grand tour of 1736 (recorded in an inventory of pictures at Winestead, 1756);
His son, Sir Robert D'Arcy Hildyard (1743-1814), 4^th Bt., of Winestead (recorded in an inventory of pictures at Winestead, 1781);
Thence by inheritance until the previous owner;
By whom anonymously sold (The Property of a Gentleman), London, Christie's, 23 April 1993, lot 60 (as a pair with A Capriccio of Hadrian's Mausoleum);
Where acquired by the present owner.

Cawthorne, Barnsley, Cannon Hall, Yorkshire and the Eighteenth Century, 23 May - 26 June 1963, no. 16.

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com , an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This canvas is lined and the painting has been cleaned and recently retouched. Although the ruins and the figures are in generally very healthy condition and are un-restored, the sky shows numerous retouches under ultraviolet light. However, due to the healthy condition in the foreground and the obvious looseness and lack of discipline to the retouches in the sky, it is fair to assume that although there are damages and losses in the sky, the restoration could be applied in considerably more diligent fashion if this were an issue. There is one notable structural damage which is a vertical restoration addressing a tear of approximately eight inches running vertically in the center left sky, elsewhere there do not appear to be any physical issues except possibly in the upper right corner. The retouches most likely address slight thinness and minor losses. The painting however looks respectable as is.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Dated to circa 1736 by Ferdinando Arisi, this painting and its pendant (see following lot) were likely acquired, or perhaps even directly commissioned, from the artist by Sir Robert Hildyard, 3^rd Bt. while he was on his Grand Tour.  Juxtaposing the decaying grandeur of the monuments of ancient Rome with the simple, bucolic figures resting and conversing amongst them, these works evoke a feeling of harmony between past and present, man and nature.  The existence of a similar pair of views by Panini (see note below), confirms that these capricci were conceived of by the artist and executed as a pair. 

Although Arisi lists several other compositions by Panini that incorporate similar views and ruins, these canvases are most closely related to a pair of views formerly in the collection of George Lewis Coke (1715-1750) that were etched by Johann Sebastian Müller and published by John Boydell in 1775-1776 (see fig. 1 and fig. 2, illustrated on the following page).¹  Otherwise unrecorded, the Coke pictures are very close in composition to the present works, although with several significant alterations.  In the Campo Vaccino, for example, the foreground figures with the dog, and the figure group in front of the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina are unique to the present pair; and in the Mausoleum, the Egyptian obelisk that features so prominently in the background of the Coke picture has been omitted.  Additionally, the cloud formations in the skies of the two sets differ from one another, as do the shadows that fall on the foundation of Hadrian's tomb.  Not only were George Coke and Sir Robert Hildyard contemporaries, but they both made their Grand Tours within a year of one another, with Coke going to Italy in 1735 and Hildyard following in 1736.  It is highly probable that Hildyard would have seen Coke's paintings while in Rome and commissioned a similar set for himself.  This is not to imply, however, that these works are copies of the Coke pictures, as the freely drawn figures and numerous pentimenti in the present lot demonstrate that Panini was actively involved in their creation and resolved the compositions as he worked.

We are grateful to Dr. David Marshall for his assistance in the cataloguing of the present lot and its pendant, and for endorsing the attribution on the basis of photographs. 

1.  For other works by the artist that incorporate similar monuments, see F. Arisi, Gian Paolo Panini e i fasti della Roma del '700, Rome 1986, nos. 93, 94, 506.