STUDIO OF GIOVANNI PAOLO PANINI (ITALY 1691-1765)

PROPERTY FROM A LONDON COLLECTION (lots 37-40)

STUDIO OF GIOVANNI PAOLO PANINI (ITALY 1691-1765)
A capriccio of classical ruins
Oil on canvas
72.5 x 93.5cm (28 1/2 x 36 3/4in)

Provenance:
David Ker (1751-1811) of Portavo and Montalto, Ireland. Ker embarked on the Grand Tour to Italy in 1771. There he eloped with the Venetian singer Madalena Guardi, thought to be the daughter of the painter Francesco Guardi. The couple married in Padua, and had three daughters and a son. Following the death of Madalena in 1785, He left his son at Eton and returned to Italy with his daughters. There he purchased works for his estates in Ireland, including a portrait by Raphael and the present work.
David Guardi Ker (1779-1844), son of the above
Stewart Ker (1816-1878), son of the above
Alfred David Ker (1843-1877), son of the above
Richard Ker (1850-1943), brother of the above; thence by descent to the present owner

Panini was the most important and successful painter of views of Rome in the 18th century. His compositions were characterised by their accurate portrayal of the city’s most celebrated sites, usually imaginatively integrated into a single landscape as in the present example. To meet the demand for his vedute collected by visitors enjoying the Grand Tour, Panini established a successful studio and workshop. Hubert Robert was one of the painters who worked Panini, as was his son Francesco.

The present capriccio view is one of Panini’s most well-known. It brings together, from left to right: the sharply foreshortened Temple of Hadrian; the Flaminian Obelisk now in the centre of the Piazza del Popolo and, further back, the top galleries of the Colosseum. To the right, closer to the viewer are: the Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine, and to the far right the Temple of Fortuna Virilis, in front of which is the sarcophagus of Constantina, now in the collection of the Museo Pio-Clementino in the Vatican.

The prime signed and dated version of this composition is recorded (but unillustrated) by Ferdinando Arisi in his monograph on Panini (F. Arisi, Gian Paolo Panini e i fasti della Rome del ‘700, Rome 1986, p. 409, no. 357). It is likely that this is the same signed and dated work that was sold by Christie’s in 2003, and re-offered for sale by Sotheby’s on 5th December 2012. As well as the prime version and the present work, several other similar versions exist. These include one sold at Sotheby’s Milan on 2 December 2003, lot 126; one in a private collection, Piacenza, Italy; one in the Kress Collection, Columbia, South Carolina, USA, and a smaller version sold as one of a pair at Christie’s, London 23 March 1973, lot 92.