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Ancient Rome

1757
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 627
Ancient Rome is a pendant to Modern Rome (on view nearby) and catalogs some of the city’s most famous monuments. Guidebooks and writings on art in the 1700s typically contrasted ancient and modern works in order to draw out their strengths and weaknesses. Like luxurious postcards, the paintings depicted here in miniature present a condensed itinerary of must-see sights. The comte de Stainville (later the duc de Choiseul), the French ambassador to Rome who commissioned this pair of canvases, appears at the center holding a guidebook; Panini included himself behind the chair. The Pantheon, the Colosseum, Trajan’s Column, and the Laocoön are among the sites depicted. To see a full list of the monuments represented, visit this object’s record at The Met website.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Ancient Rome
  • Artist: Giovanni Paolo Panini (Italian, Piacenza 1691–1765 Rome)
  • Date: 1757
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 67 3/4 x 90 1/2 in. (172.1 x 229.9 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Gwynne Andrews Fund, 1952
  • Object Number: 52.63.1
  • Curatorial Department: European Paintings

More Artwork

More Artwork
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Figures in Classical Ruins, Giovanni Paolo Panini Italian, Pen and brown ink, brush and brown and gray wash, over black chalk
Figures in Classical Ruins
Giovanni Paolo Panini
1691–1765
Ruins of a Basilica or Mausoleum, Giovanni Paolo Panini Italian, Pen and gray ink, brush and brown and gray wash
Ruins of a Basilica or Mausoleum
Giovanni Paolo Panini
1691–1765
Man Shading His Face with a Tricorne, Giovanni Paolo Panini Italian, Brush and pale brown wash, over graphite
Man Shading His Face with a Tricorne
Giovanni Paolo Panini
1691–1765
The Lottery in Piazza di Montecitorio, Giovanni Paolo Panini Italian, Pen and black ink, watercolor, over graphite; framing lines in pen and black ink at left, right, and upper margins
The Lottery in Piazza di Montecitorio
Giovanni Paolo Panini
1743–1744
Design for the Decoration of a Palace Interior, Giovanni Paolo Panini Italian, Pen and brown ink, brush and gray wash
Design for the Decoration of a Palace Interior
Giovanni Paolo Panini
1691–1765

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