Lot 35*
Giovanni Paolo Panini(Piacenza 1690-1765 Rome)An architectural capriccio with figures amongst ruins, a statue of Meleager at the centre and the Pyramid of Caius Cestius beyond
3 December 2025, 14:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£40,000 - £60,000
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Giovanni Paolo Panini (Piacenza 1690-1765 Rome)
An architectural capriccio with figures amongst ruins, a statue of Meleager at the centre and the Pyramid of Caius Cestius beyond
signed and dated 'I.P.P. ** Ro/ 1744' (lower left)
oil on canvas
76 x 64cm (29 15/16 x 25 3/16in).
signed and dated 'I.P.P. ** Ro/ 1744' (lower left)
oil on canvas
76 x 64cm (29 15/16 x 25 3/16in).
Footnotes
Provenance
The Collection of Albert Grossman, Brombach, by whom sold
Sale, Helbing, Munich, 30 October 1902, lot 114
With Knoedler & Co. New York
The Collection of Mrs Marianne G. Faulkner Woodstock, Vermont, by whose executors sold
Sale, Parke-Bernet Galleries, 15 November 1958, lot 157 (as dated 1745), where purchased by
R. P. Wunder, and thence by descent until sold
Sale, Sotheby's, New York, 27 January 2005, lot 196 (hammer price $320,000) where purchased by the present owners
Literature
F. Arisi, Gian Paolo Panini, Piacenza, 1961, p. 230 (as dated 1745)
F. Arisi, Gian Paolo Panini e i fasti della Roma del '700, Rome, 1986, p. 413, cat. no. 366, ill.p. 413 (as dated 1745)
Giovanni Paolo Panini is best known for his imaginary architectural capricci in which he often placed known monuments within a fanciful arrangement of ruins. Here, he has used the crumbling pyramid of the tomb of Gaius Cestius as the backdrop for the present composition. A further version of the present lot was offered at Christie's, London, 11 October 1963, lot 62.
Built as a tomb in circa 18BC for Gaius Cestius, this pyramid is a motif that Panini returned to many times, both as a focal point of the composition, such as his Ruins with the Pyramid of Gaius Cestius of 1730 now in the Museo del Prado (inv. no. P000273), and also as a more of a background element, as can be seen in his pair of works offered at Sotheby's Paris, 26 November 2024, lot 4.
Having completed his training, most probably with Francesco Galli-Bibiena (1659-1739), Giovanni Paolo Panini moved to Rome in 1711 and established himself as a leading painter of vedute. During the first decades after his arrival in Rome he worked almost exclusively for the Roman nobility but by 1732 he was admitted into the Académie de France à Rome reflecting his increasingly international clientele.