Giovanni Paolo Panini

Fabrizio Apolloni, Rome;
With Dino Franzin, Milan, by 1973;
With Colnaghi, New York, 1983.

Florence, Palazzo Strozzi, 8^a Biennale Mostra Mercato Internazionale dell'Antiquariato: città di Firenze, 15 September - 14 October,1973.

F. Arisi, Gian Paolo Panini e i fasti della Roma del '700, Rome 1986, p. 335, cat. no. 208, reproduced.

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 painting is dirty. It has an old glue lining, which seems to be sufficient. Even though the upper left corner is a bit lumpy, the unevenness here is due to old fillings that can be adjusted. This corner and the upper area in the columns beneath the capitals in the center right of the composition seem to constitute all of the structural damages. There is very slight thinness in some of the weakest browns in the shadows, but the bulk of this picture is in very good condition. If the painting is cleaned, some of the fillings refined, and retouches added carefully, the work will be seen to be in lovely condition.
"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."

This painting is a work of the artist’s early maturity and a fine example of Panini’s capricci of architectural ruins which, along with his real views of Rome, were in great demand in the 18^th century, particularly among the many Grand Tourists then flocking to the city.  The painting is datable to circa 1730, by which time Panini had become well established in Rome.  Having arrived there in 1711, he became a member of the Congregazione dei Virtuosi al Pantheon in 1718 and was nominated to the Accademia di San Luca in 1719; by 1732 he had been accepted as a member of the Académie de France.

As Arisi (see Literature) points out, the figure of the soldier reclining on a large boulder, seen in the foreground, is a distinctive pose that Panini repeated.  The sculptural group of the horse and man on the pedestal at left is based on the statue of Castor, one of the two Dioscuri.  Castor and the corresponding sculpture of Pollux were found in pieces in the 16^th century when they were reconstructed and placed at the top of Michelangelo’s cordonata leading up to the Capitoline Hill.  The fragment of a frieze with griffins, a motif that Panini also repeated, is based on the frieze of the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina in the Forum.¹

We are grateful to Dr. David R. Marshall for confirming the attribution and dating of this work, based on photographs.  This lot is accompanied by a photocopy of a certificate from Ferdinando Arisi dated 8 May 1969.

1.  See for example Arisi, op.cit., cat. nos. 180 and 188.