Giovanni Paolo Panini

Sale, Paris, Piasa, 5 December 2001, lot 27;
With Galleria Cesare Lampronti, Rome;
From whom acquired, 23 September 2002.

Rome, Fondazione Roma Museo, Roma e l'Antico, Visione e realtà nel '700, 30 November 2010 - 6 March 2011, nos I.5a and b. 

C. Brook and V. Curzi (eds.), Roma e l'Antico, Visione e realtà nel '700, exhibition catalogue, Milan 2010, pp. 386-87, cat. no. I.5 a and b, reproduced in color p. 245.

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 pair of painting is in wonderful condition. There is no abrasion or weakness to any of the details in either work. The only retouches visible under ultraviolet light are to a few spots in the skies of both pictures. This is the least one can expect for works of this period, and the paintings should be hung 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."

Giovanni Paolo Panini, yet another great artist influenced by Vanvitelli, should be considered among the greatest vedutisti of the eighteenth century. He particularly excelled at painting spirited figures, as seen in the present works, and few others were able to match his skill and inventiveness in painting capricci. In these two excellent fantasy views Panini unites various ruins and objects scattered around Rome to create imaginary, warmly-lit amalgams that celebrate the glories of the city's imperial past. 

In the first painting we find to the right a monumental red porphyry sarcophagus, today housed in the Vatican Museums, which was made to hold the remains of one of the Emperor Constantine's daughters, probably Costantia who died in 354 AD. The sarcophagus was originally kept in the church dedicated to Costantia in the Via Nomentana, beside the Basilica of Sant'Agnese, both of which were built over older catacombs. During Panini's lifetime the sarcophagus would have been in Piazza San Marco, just beside Piazza Venezia. It was carted to the Vatican by forty oxen in 1790.

In the second painting we see the bronze equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius. Standing at over four meters tall, the statue was originally erected in 175 AD. At the time Panini was working the statue stood in the Piazza del Campidoglio on the Capitoline Hill, where a copy of it can still be found. Behind the statue, Trajan's Column towers over the scene. Completed in 113 AD, the column still stands in Trajan's Forum and commemorates the Emperor's victory in the Dacian wars, with the intricate spiral bas-relief on the column describing the battles and associated events. The statue of Saint Peter was placed on top of the column much later. In the right foreground can be seen what remains of the Forum of Nerva, which was completed in 97 AD.

Copies after these works were offered London, Bonham's, 6 July 2011, lot 129.