Ancient Rome by Giovanni Paolo Panini

Annotated Ancient Rome

Where? Room 629 of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
When? 1757
Commissioned by? Count de Stainville

What do you see? On top is a green curtain that is pulled aside to show many paintings and sculptures of ancient Roman monuments. Panini and his patron Count de Stainville appear in the painting. Panini is standing directly behind the chair in the middle, while Count de Stainville is standing in front of him with a book in his hand.

In the figure below the paintings are numbered to make it easy to understand what they represent.

1. Temple of Vesta in Tivoli;
2. Forum of Nerva;
3. Temple of Vespasian and Titus;
4. Arch of Constantine;
5. Aqua Claudia, an aqueduct;
6. Arch of Titus;
7. Temple of Antoninus and Faustina on the Roman Forum;
8. Arch of Septimius Severus on the Roman Forum;
9. Interior of the Pantheon;
10. Baths of Diocletian;
11. Sleeping Ariadne, which is now in the Vatican Museums;
12. The people in the middle are admiring a painting of the Aldobrandini Wedding, a famous ancient fresco on display in the Vatican Museums;
13. Temple of Castor and Pollux on the Roman Forum;
14. Exterior of the Pantheon;
15. Basilica of Maxentius, which was the largest building on the Roman Forum;
16. Temple of Minerva Medica;
17. Colosseum;
18. Santa Constanza church;
19. Arch of Janus;
20. Temple of Saturn on the Roman Forum;
21. Temple of Portunus;
22. Temple of Hercules Victor;
23. Column of Marcus Aurelius;
24. Theatre of Marcellus.
    
    ​​The sculptures are indicated by the following numbers starting from the left.
    
25. Bocca della Verità (Mouth of Truth), which is now in the Santa Maria in Cosmedin church;
26. Farnese Hercules, which is now in the National Archaeological Museum in Naples;
27. Dying Gaul, an ancient Roman copy of an ancient Greek statue. This copy is in the Capitoline Museums;
28. Borghese Gladiator which is now in the Louvre;
29. The big Medici Vase, which is now on display in the Uffizi Museum;
30. Hermes, which is now in the Vatican Museums;
31. Apollo Belvedere, which is now in the Vatican Museums;
32. Silenus and the Infant Bacchus which is now in the Louvre;
33. Boy with Thorn which is now in the Capitoline Museums. A marble copy of this statue is in the Uffizi Museum;
34. Borghese Vase which is now in the Louvre;
35. Laocoön and His Sons which is now in the Vatican Museums.

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Aldobrandini Wedding in the Vatican Museums

Backstory: The painting was created together with a painting of Modern Rome, which is in the same room of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The idea was that the monuments in this painting represent all the works that a young gentleman of a good family should see on his tour of Rome. This kind of tours was popular among the rich to educate young men about the cultural world. 

There are three versions of the Ancient Rome painting and they all look slightly different. Besides the version in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart has on version, and the Louvre has another version.

Why Rome? Rome was the capital of the Roman Empire. It is considered to be the birthplace of the Western civilization. It contains a large number of ruins, monuments, buildings, museums, etc., of significant historical importance. Since the beginning of the Renaissance, it has attracted many well-known artists and contributed to their development.

Who is Panini? Giovanni Paolo Panini (1691-1765) was an architect, painter, and professor. He is known as a vedutisti, which is a painter of a veduta (Italian for ‘view’). A veduta is a highly detailed painting of a certain view, such as a city or landscape. While born in Piacenza, he spent most of his life in Rome, which has been the dominant theme in his paintings.

Fun fact: Panini painted multiple versions of this painting within three years. The painting is part of a set of three other paintings, a painting of Modern Rome, a painting of Saint Peter’s Square, and a painting of the interior of Saint Peter’s.

​Because of the popularity of these paintings, he created this set of four paintings twice (remember that there were no photographs possible in his time, so this was probably the best you could get as a picture of Rome). He also created a third and fourth version of Ancient Rome and Modern Rome.
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Interested in a copy for yourself? Poster or canvas.

Modern Rome by Panini

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Written by Eelco Kappe

References: 

• www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/437244
• www.swarthmore.edu/Humanities/pschmid1/array/ruins/pannini.gallery.html