Ancient Ruins Animated By Characters. Workshop Giovanni Paolo Panini (1691-1765)

Figures conversing at the foot of an ancient portico, next to a fountain

Oil on canvas
Presented in a beautiful gilded wood frame with gadroon and pearl motifs (18th century period)

Overall dimensions: 90 x 77 cm. Canvas alone: ​​75 x 60 cm.

Giovanni Paolo Panini (Piacenza, Emilia-Romagna, 1691 - Rome, 1765) was an Italian Baroque painter.
From his early training in the Bibbiena circle, he retained a taste for scenography that influenced him throughout his career in Rome, where he settled from 1711.
There, he was initially a student of B. Luti, whose Maratta-style classicism influenced him only briefly. As a painter, Panini is best known for his views of Rome, in which he shows a particular interest in the city's antiquities. Among his most famous works are views of the Pantheon, and his paintings of vedute and galleries of views of Rome. Most of his works, especially those of ruins, reflect the painter's fantasy, his taste for the unreal, and his imagination. This is an important characteristic of this artist called "capriccio." Panini also painted portraits, including one for Pope Benedict XIV.
His style influenced several vedutists, such as his student Antonio Joli, as well as Canaletto, Bernardo Bellotto, and Hubert Robert, who particularly inherited his interest in ancient ruins.
His compositions, sometimes immense, often have the value of veritable "slices of life" cut out from the ancient and modern monuments of Rome (Piazza del Quirinale and Piazza Santa Maria Maggiore, 1742, Rome, Quirinale); They remain among the most captivating examples of the period. Gifted with exceptional talent as a scenographer, Pannini always imbued his representations with a grandiose sense of space; he achieved monumental effects, contrasting with the verve displayed in the depiction of the figurines that populate his scenes.

Provenance:
Former collection of King Louis Philippe (1773-1850), according to an inscription on the back of the canvas.

Beautiful original condition. Sold with an expert certificate.