Considering his background in architectural design, it is no surprise that Panini utilized a great amount of detail in formulating a characteristically classical interior furnished with Corinthian columns, coffered domes, and a vault that draws the viewer's eye into the painting. A green cloth is propped to the upper-right side of the picture plane-much like a curtain on a stage- so that the viewer may gaze upon the majestic, imaginary collection. The invented scene, or capriccio, illustrates an interior view of an architectural space that is replete with classical objects. It was created for the Duc de Choiseul (1719-1785), who is depicted in the center of the 172.1 x 229.9 cm composition holding a guidebook-presumably, one that might direct a traveler on the Grand Tour to the sites and works of art presented to the viewer in the painting. Serving as a catalogue of collectibles and a guidebook for the Grand Tour, Panini’s oil painting entitled Ancient Rome encapsulates the high value that the public imposed upon classical antiquities during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Thus, his depictions of Rome in ruins were marked with a degree of nostalgia that coincided with the concurrent fixation among European elites for Greco-Roman antiquity. Often, these images were romanticized and featured imagined landscapes yet, the architectural subjects of the images were nearly always identifiable. While Canaletto painted cityscapes, scenic trade routes, and the activity of urban life, Panini, like his contemporary, Piranesi (1720-1778), spent much of his time painting the ruins of Rome. Giovanni Paolo Panini, Ancient Rome, 1757, oil on canvas (Metropolitan Museum of Art).
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