Giovanni Paolo Panini

Giovanni Paolo, also known as Gian Paolo Panini or Pannini (17 June 1691 – 21 October 1765), was an Italian Baroque 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 Rome, in which he took a particular interest in the city's antiquities. Among his most famous works are his view of the interior of the Pantheon (on behalf of Francesco Algarotti), and his vedute—paintings of picture galleries containing views of Rome. Most of his works, especially those of ruins, have a fanciful and unreal embellishment characteristic of capriccio themes. In this they resemble the capricci of Marco Ricci. Panini also painted portraits, including one of Pope Benedict XIV. the architect, and Francesco Panini (Rome, 1745 - 1812), the painter, who followed in his father's footsteps and manners.

In Rome, Panini earned a name for himself as a decorator of palaces. Some of his works included the Villa Patrizi (1719–1725), the Palazzo de Carolis (1720), and the Seminario Romano (1721–1722). In 1719, Panini was admitted to the Congregazione dei Virtuosi al Pantheon. He taught in Rome at the Accademia di San Luca and the Académie de France, where he is said to have influenced Jean-Honoré Fragonard. In 1754, he served as the prince (director) of the Accademia di San Luca.

The Spanish monarchs appreciated his work in such a way that, commissioned by Filippo Juvarra, he sent paintings to decorate the Lacquer Room of the Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso. In addition, King Carlos IV, when he was Prince, bought several of his works that are still preserved in the Prado Museum and in the royal palaces.

Panini died in Rome on 21 October 1765.

Legacy

thumb|German soldiers in 1944 posing with a Pannini picture – Carlo III di Borbone che visita il papa Benedetto XIV nella coffee-house del Quirinale a Roma – at the time looted from the Naples Museum

Panini's studio included Hubert Robert and his son Francesco Panini. His style influenced other vedutisti, such as his pupils Antonio Joli and Charles-Louis Clérisseau, as well as Canaletto and Bernardo Bellotto, who sought to meet the need of visitors for painted "postcards" depicting the Italian environs. Some British landscape painters, such as Marlow, Skelton and Wright of Derby, also imitated his capricci.

In addition to being a painter and architect, Panini was a professor of perspective and optics at the French Academy of Rome. His masterful use of perspective was later the inspiration for the creation of the "Panini Projection", which is instrumental in rendering panoramic views.

[http://wiki.panotools.org/The_General_Panini_Projection][https://www.facebook.com/paniniprojection]

Panini's works are held in the permanent collections of many museums worldwide, including the Prado Museum, the Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, the University of Michigan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Saint Louis Art Museum, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Getty Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Walters Art Museum, the Harvard Art Museums, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

Gallery

History paintings

File:Giovanni Paolo Pannini - Expulsion of the Moneychangers from the Temple - WGA16968.jpg|Expulsion of the Moneychangers from the Temple (), oil on canvas, 74 x 99 cm., Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum

File:Giovanni Paolo Panini The Wedding at Cana, about 1725.jpg|The Wedding at Cana (), oil on canvas, 99.2 × 137.2 cm., Speed Art Museum

File:Giovanni Paolo Panini (1691-1765) - Marcus Curtius Leaping into the Gulf - 207 - Fitzwilliam Museum.jpg|Marcus Curtius Leaping into the Gulf (no date), oil on canvas, 73.7 x 98.1 cm., Fitzwilliam Museum

File:Museo diocesano (Milan) Giovanni Paolo Pannini, Apollo e Marsia (cropped).jpg|Apollo and Mars (no date), oil on canvas, Diocesan Museum of Milan

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Capriccios

File:Giovanni Paolo Pannini - Capriccio of Classical Ruins - WGA16965.jpg|Capriccio of Classical Ruins (-30), oil on canvas, 123 x 132 cm., private collection

File:Giovanni Paolo Pannini - Landscape with the Arch of Titus - M.Ob.41 - National Museum in Warsaw.jpg|Landscape with the Arch of Titus (1725-50), oil on canvas, 51 x 76 cm., National Museum, Warsaw

File:Giovanni Paolo Panini - Roman Capriccio, The Colosseum and Other Monuments - 50.6 - Indianapolis Museum of Art.jpg|Roman Capriccio: The Colosseum and Other Monuments (1735), oil on canvas, 98.4 x 133 cm., Indianapolis Museum of Art

File:Giovanni Paolo Panini (1691-1765) - Capriccio of Roman Ruins with the Colosseum - PD.107-1992 - Fitzwilliam Museum.jpg|A Capriccio of Roman Ruins (1737), oil on canvas, 36.8 x 69.2 cm., Fitzwilliam Museum

File:Giovanni Paolo Panini - Fantasy View with the Pantheon and other Monuments of Ancient Rome - 61.62 - Museum of Fine Arts.jpg|Fantasy View with the Pantheon and other Monuments of Ancient Rome (1737), oil on canvas, 99 x 137.5 cm., Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

File:Giovanni Paolo Pannini - St Sibyl's Sermon in Roman Ruins with the Statue of Apollo, 1740s.jpg|St Sibyl's Sermon in Roman Ruins with the Statue of Apollo (1740s), oil on canvas, 81 x 125 cm., Hermitage Museum

File:Giovanni Paolo Panini - A Capriccio of the Roman Forum - 1964.41 - Yale University Art Gallery.jpg|A Capriccio of the Roman Forum (1741), oil on canvas, 170.8 x 217.8 cm., Yale University Art Gallery

File:Giovanni Paolo Panini - An Architectural Capriccio of the Roman Forum with Philosophers and Soldiers among Ancient Ruins, in... - Google Art Project.jpg|Architectural Capriccio of the Roman Forum with Philosophers and Soldiers (1745-50), oil on canvas, 98.4 x 135 cm., National Museum of Western Art

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Veduta (contemporary Rome)

File:Giovanni Paolo Pannini - Piazza Navona in Rome - WGA16976.jpg|Piazza Navona in Rome (1729), oil on canvas, 107 x 248 cm., Louvre

File:St-peters-basilica-interior-pannini-1735.jpg|The Nave of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican (1735), oil on canvas, 153 x 219.7 cm., Norton Simon Museum

File:Pannini, Giovanni Paolo - Interior of the San Giovanni in Laterano in Rome - 18th c.jpg|Interior of the San Giovanni in Laterano in Rome (no date), oil on canvas, 74 x 100 cm., Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts

File:Lotteria in piazza di Montecitorio.jpg|Lotteria in Piazza di Montecitorio (1743), oil on canvas, National Gallery

File:Pannini - La Remise de l'ordre du Saint-Esprit au prince Vaini par le duc de Saint-Aignan en l'église Saint-Louis-des-Français, le 15 septembre 1737.jpg|The delivery of the Order of the Holy Spirit to Prince Vaini by the Duke of Saint-Aignan in the Saint-Louis-des-Français church, September 15, 1737 (), oil on canvas, 72 x 98 cm., Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen

File:Pannini, Giovanni Paolo - Musical Fête - 1747.png|Musical feast given by the cardinal de La Rochefoucauld in the Teatro Argentina in Rome in 1747 on the occasion of the marriage of Dauphin, son of Louis XV (1747), oil on canvas, 207 x 247 cm., Louvre

File:Giovanni Paolo Pannini - View of Rome from Mt. Mario, in the Southeast - WGA16983.jpg|View of Rome from Mt. Mario, in the Southeast (1749), oil on canvas, 102 x 168 cm., Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

File:Pannini GP Piazza Navona (cropped).JPG|Piazza Navona, Rome (1756), oil on canvas, Landesmuseum Hannover

File:Giovanni Paolo Pannini - Picture Gallery with Views of Modern Rome - WGA16969.jpg|Picture Gallery with Views of Modern Rome (1757), oil on canvas, 170 x 245 cm., Museum of Fine Arts Boston

File:Giovanni Paolo Pannini - Gallery of Views of Ancient Rome - WGA16979.jpg|Gallery of Views of Ancient Rome (1758), oil on canvas, 203 x 300 cm., Louvre

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Drawings

File:Man Shading His Face with a Tricorne MET 1975.131.42.jpg|Man Shading His Face with a Tricorne (no date), brown wash, over graphite, 21.6 x 10.6cm., Metropolitan Museum of Art

File:Giovanni Paolo Panini, Saint Paul Preaching in Athens, 1734, NGA 131305.jpg|Saint Paul Preaching in Athens, 1734, National Gallery of Art

File:The Lottery in Piazza di Montecitorio MET DT209219.jpg|The Lottery in Piazza di Montecitorio (1743-44), Pen, ink, watercolor, graphite, 34 x 54.5cm., Metropolitan Museum of Art

File:Scalinata della Trinità dei Monti MET dp1971.63.1.R.jpg|Staircase of the Trinity of Mont (ca. 1756-58), Pen, ink, wash, watercolor, and graphite, 34.8 x 29.3 cm., Metropolitan Museum of Art

File:Circle of Giovanni Paolo Panini, Arch of Titus, NGA 130863.jpg|Arch of Titus (no date), pen, ink and wash, 18.7 x 12.2 cm., National Gallery of Art

File:Ruins of a Basilica or Mausoleum MET 87.12.50.jpg|Ruins of a Basilica or Mausoleum (no date),Pen, ink, and wash, 31 x 20.6cm., Metropolitan Museum of Art

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References

External links

Art and the empire city: New York, 1825-1861, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Panini (see index)
Europe in the age of enlightenment and revolution, a catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Panini (see index)
Capriccio of Roman Ruins with Figures, from the Permanent Collection of the Utah Museum of Fine Arts
Panini at Waddesdon Manor

Legacy

Gallery

History paintings

Capriccios

Veduta (contemporary Rome)

Drawings

References

Further reading

External links