''Ancient Rome'' is a trio of almost identical paintings by Italian artist

Giovanni Paolo Panini Giovanni Paolo Panini or Pannini (17 June 1691 – 21 October 1765) was an Italian painter and architect who worked in Rome and is primarily known as one of the ''vedutisti'' ("view painters"). As a painter, Panini is best known for his vistas of ...

, produced as

pendant painting In art, a pendant is one of two paintings, statues, reliefs or other type of works of art intended as a pair. Typically, pendants are related thematically to each other and are displayed in close proximity. For example, pairs of portraits of ma ...

s to '' Modern Rome'' for his patron, the comte de Stainville, in the 1750s.Giovanni Paolo Panini: Modern Rome (52.63.2)
. In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. (October 2006). Retrieved November 28, 2009. The paintings depict many of the most significant architectural sites and sculptures from

ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC ...

, such as the

Colosseum The Colosseum ( ; it, Colosseo ) is an oval amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, just east of the Roman Forum. It is the largest ancient amphitheatre ever built, and is still the largest standing amphitheatre in the world t ...

, the

Pantheon Pantheon may refer to: * Pantheon (religion), a set of gods belonging to a particular religion or tradition, and a temple or sacred building Arts and entertainment Comics *Pantheon (Marvel Comics), a fictional organization * ''Pantheon'' (Lone S ...

, ''

Laocoön and His Sons The statue of ''Laocoön and His Sons'', also called the Laocoön Group ( it, Gruppo del Laocoonte), has been one of the most famous ancient sculptures ever since it was excavated in Rome in 1506 and placed on public display in the Vatican Museums ...

'', the ''

Farnese Hercules The ''Farnese Hercules'' ( it, Ercole Farnese) is an ancient statue of Hercules, probably an enlarged copy made in the early third century AD and signed by Glykon, who is otherwise unknown; the name is Greek but he may have worked in Rome. Like ...

'', the ''

Apollo Belvedere The ''Apollo Belvedere'' (also called the ''Belvedere Apollo, Apollo of the Belvedere'', or ''Pythian Apollo'') is a celebrated marble sculpture from Classical Antiquity. The ''Apollo'' is now thought to be an original Roman creation of Hadri ...

'' and the ''

Borghese Gladiator The ''Borghese Gladiator'' is a Hellenistic life-size marble sculpture portraying a swordsman, created at Ephesus about 100 BC, now on display at the Louvre. Sculptor The sculpture is signed on the pedestal by Agasias, son of Dositheus, who i ...

''. Both Panini and Stainville are featured: Stainville stands holding a guidebook, while Panini appears behind Stainville's armchair. The three versions of ''Ancient Rome'', in order of creation, are located in the

Staatsgalerie Stuttgart The Staatsgalerie Stuttgart (, "State Gallery") is an art museum in Stuttgart, Germany, it opened in 1843. In 1984, the opening of the Neue Staatsgalerie (''New State Gallery'') designed by James Stirling transformed the once provincial gallery ...

, the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

in New York and the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

in Paris. The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Louvre each hold a version of Panini's companion piece, ''Modern Rome''; and the third version is in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

History

In 1749, Giovanni Pannini painted the Gallery of Cardinal Silvio Valenti-Gonzaga, a painting representing Silvio Valenti-Gonzaga inside a huge gallery whose walls are covered with reproductions of the paintings he owns. This composition, featuring an imaginary architecture dedicated to the exhibition of an artistic collection, is the basis of the Gallery of Views. Between 1753 and 1757, Count Étienne François de Choiseul,

Louis XV Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached ...

's ambassador to Rome in the 1740s, commissioned four paintings from Pannini: the Galleries of Views of Ancient Rome and Modern Rome, a view of the Place Saint-Peter and an Interior of St. Peter's Basilica. These paintings were made between 1754 and 1757. In 1757, the Comte de Choiseul commissioned a second execution of these four paintings from him. In 1758-1759, Pannini produced another version of the two Galleries on behalf of Claude-François de Montboissier de Canillac de Beaufort, abbot of Canillac and charge d'affaires at the French embassy in Rome. These versions are not identical to the previous ones: the paintings and sculptures are not depicted as hanging in the same places, some are missing between the two versions and the figures do not occupy the same positions.

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1750s paintings Paintings set in ancient Rome Architecture paintings Paintings by Giovanni Paolo Panini Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art Paintings in the Louvre by Italian artists Works about the Colosseum