PANNINI, Giovanni Paolo

In this companion to “Alexander the Great at the Tomb of Achilles”, the Macedonian ruler and general has entered the town of Gordium (in present-day Turkey) in 344 BC. In that city was the chariot of Gordius, the father of the legendary King Midas. The yoke of the wagon was fastened by a complicated knot. It had been prophesied that the one who could loose the knot would become the ruler of Asia. Instead of trying to untie the impossibly difficult knot, Alexander just cut through it with his sword. He went on to conquer Asian kingdoms as far east as Afghanistan. To suggest Asia Minor and the ancient past, Pannini introduced a bystander wearing a turban and placed the scene in front of an altar dedicated to Zeus, ruler of the Greek gods, enthroned with his thunderbolt.

Alexander the Great (356-323 BC) is said to have ordered the tomb of Achilles (Greek hero in the Trojan War) to be opened so that he could pay homage to his legendary predecessor. Achilles’s tomb was in what is today Turkey; to suggest an ancient setting outside the Roman world, Pannini introduced an Egyptian pyramid in the background. The painting and its companion, “Alexander the Great Cutting the Gordian Knot” represent Pannini’s fantasy of the grandeur of the ancient world.

This dated and signed work is from the mature period of the artist. A few other, smaller pictures of similar composition are known from the same year. Some of the figures can be found in other paintings of the artist.

This architectural capriccio depicts Roman ruins and the statue of Marcus Aurelius on horseback with a soldier returning, other soldiers and figures nearby. An array of ruins from the Roman Forum (including the Temple of Minerva Medica in the left background) are superimposed with other identifiable structures, such as Trajan’s column and an Egyptian obelisk, and certain elements, such as the marble relief lower left and the statues of Marcus Aurelius and the Farnese Hercules, reappear in numerous compositions by the artist.

Pannini specialised in painting vedute, many of which were imaginary (capricci), and he differed from contemporary painters such as Bellotto and Vanvitelli, whose accurately described views contrast with his picturesque approach to topography. This extraordinary view is a fine and characteristic example of the type of picture for which Pannini became famous. The painting is signed and dated lower centre.

This signed and dated painting is a capriccio with figures discoursing among Roman ruins. The architectural elements appear to be of Panini’s invention, although some components may have been inspired by actual ruins in Rome. Panini creates here a monumental setting, in which the strong vertical emphasis of the columns is softened by the horizontal accent of the arched ceiling of the arcade.

In this capriccio (a topographically inaccurate landscpe) the pyramid of Caius Cestius can be seen in the background at left.

Pannini’s mature manner, culminating in his easel works of the 1730s and 1740s, developed through an assimilation of a variety of influences, most notably his exposure to the work of Gaspare Vanvitelli, another master of Roman vedute, and Salvator Rosa. The present painting is a excellent example of how Pannini incorporated all these different influences and interpreted them in his own unique and impressive fashion.

This capriccio of classical ruins includes the Temple of Antonius and Faustina, the Colosseum, the Basilica of Maxentius and the Temple of Venus and Rome. The architectural elements are accurate depictions of real sites, however, Pannini has removed them from their natural context and positioned them in his own order across the panoramic canvas. The scene is populated by figures: a man admiring the Farnese Hercules while others converse with washerwomen near a sculpted relief of a sacrifice in the foreground.

This early painting by the artist depicts a scene with an apostle preaching.

This large canvas was part of a series of five ordered from Pannini by Choiseul, French ambassador to the Holy See.

Choiseul has just had his initial papal audience with Benedict XIV. Leaving Bernini’s colonnade, with the fa�ade of St. Peter’s in the background, the gilded ducal carriage leads a lengthy procession. This painting, among Pannini’s most laboriously documentary scenes, combines a bird’s-eye view with others, providing a costly, synoptic visual gospel of a major moment in eighteenth-century Franco-Roman piety and power.

Pannini’s compositions focused on real and imaginary architecture, which he used to recreate the world of classical antiquity, following Poussin’s idealizing approach conceptually if not stylistically. In this painting, the religious subject is merely an excuse to produce grand settings with architectural backgrounds.

In the Gallery of Views of Ancient Rome and its pendant Gallery of Views of Modern Rome, Pannini offers the viewer two imaginary museums assembling in one case the most glorious ruins of ancient Rome, and in the other the masterpieces of modern Rome. The art of ancient Rome is shown as a boundless source of inspiration and innovation for modern artists.

In the Gallery of Views of Ancient Rome and its pendant Gallery of Views of Modern Rome, Pannini offers the viewer two imaginary museums assembling in one case the most glorious ruins of ancient Rome, and in the other the masterpieces of modern Rome. The art of ancient Rome is shown as a boundless source of inspiration and innovation for modern artists.

Some elements of this capriccio can be recognized such as the Titus Arch, the wall of the Farnese Gardens, and the Via Sacra, the road below the arch animated by people.

Pannini painted several views of the interior of the Pantheon. The present one, showing the interior towards the Piazza della Rotonda, is the earliest dated version.

The painting belongs to a series, painted around 1730, depicting the interior of the great churches in Rome. The painting representing the interior of Santa Maria Maggiore is also in The Hermitage, while those depicting the San Giovanni in Laterano and San Giovanni fuori le Mura are in the Pushkin Museum, Moscow.

The painting belongs to a series, painted around 1730, depicting the interior of the great churches in Rome. The painting rperesenting the interior of St Peter’s is also in The Hermitage, while those depicting the San Giovanni in Laterano and San Giovanni fuori le Mura are in the Pushkin Museum, Moscow.

The painting depicts the musical fête given by the Cardinal de la Rochefoucauld at the Theatre Argentina, Rome, on 15 July 1747 in honour of the marriage of the Dauphin of France.

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The painting depicts the preparation of the fireworks and decoration on the occasion of the birth of the Dauphin (1729-1765), son of Louis XV and Marie Leczinska. The celebration on the Piazza Navona in Rome was organized by Cardinal Melchior de Polignac, the ambassador of France at the Vatican.

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The painting - together with three other similar representations - was commissioned by the Duc de Choiseul, the French ambassador to the Vatican. He is depicted seated in the centre of an imaginary art gallery, surrounded by sculptures by Michelangelo and Bernini. On the walls views of Rome are hanging.

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This painting shows an imaginary picture gallery hung with views of ancient Roman monuments and furnished with antiquities. In its pendant, now in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the views are of contemporary Rome and the sculptures date from the sixteenth and seventeenth century. The painting s in this gallery are by the painter of the picture, Giovanni Paolo Pannini, who stands in the centre wearing a frock-coat and holding his palette and brush. He is accompanied by four other men, one of whom supports the frame of the ancient wall painting known as the Aldobrandini Wedding that another studies closely. Distributed across the foreground are antique sculptures, including the Farnese Hercules, the Dying Gaul, the Silenus with the Infant Bacchus, the Borghese Vase and the Loaco�n. Two students with drawing boards are preparing to make drawings of these antiquities.

Pannin’s architectural capriccios combine the most famous monuments of antiquity without regard for the actual topography of Rome. This painting includes the Pantheon, the Temple of the Sibyl at Tivoli, the Maison Car�e at Nîmes, the sarcophagus of Constantine and the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius.

Giovanni Paolo Pannini revived classical antiquity in a proto-Romantic way.

Pannini was one of the most accomplished vedutisti (view-painters) of the eighteenth century. He came from a long tradition of Emilian view-painters and scenery-painters. In 1715 he moved to Rome where he first worked as a decorator painting counterfeit architecture in various palaces. He then found a fuller creative voice by painting scenes of holidays or special events. The spectacular backdrops he used for these works were the squares and buildings of Rome. The beauty of these monumental backgrounds, bathed in clear light that seemed to exalt the very notion of the Eternal City, was so powerful that he had no need of a narrative pretext for them. Many of Pannini’s paintings are simple views animated by lively little figures. He had a considerable influence on Canaletto and the great Venetian view-painters of the eighteenth century.

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During the last thirty years of Pannini’s life he was primarily engaged on topographic views of Rome, real or imaginary, and one cannot doubt that he received vital impulses from the precise art of Giovanni Ghisolfi, whose ‘vedute ideale’ show the characteristically Roman scenic arrangement of ruins.

This is a highly unusual view of the far side of St. Peter’s from the southeast, situating the Castel Sant’Angelo near the centre of the horizon. Two centuries before its present-day metropolitan sprawl, Rococo Rome was relatively concentrated in urban scope, allowing for deliciously sudden contrasts between city and country, a paradox fully appreciated by so keen a student of landscape as Pannini.

This view is taken from the Arch of Constantine looking northwards to the Capitoline Hill. It testifies to the artist’s originality when recording the topography of his city, combining the ancient and the modern and animating it with figures drawn from contemporary life.

The painting is signed with initials and dated on a fragment of masonry, lower left: I. P. P. 1751.