Giovanni Paolo Panini, Italian, c.1692-1765
Title: The Roman Forum
Date: 1740
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
72.5 x 98 cm
Signed: Lower left: I.P. Panini Romae 1740
Credit Line: Milltown Gift, 1902
Object Number: NGI.726
Label TextTaken from a classic viewpoint, looking north to south, Panini shows the principal buildings of the Roman Forum. This type of detailed record was sought by Grand Tourists as a reminder of their stay in the city. Next to the three surviving columns of the Temple of Castor and Pollux, Panini added the Borghese Vase from the Borghese collection. Panini frequently paired a view of the Forum with a view of the Colosseum and Arch of Constantine. Indeed these two views were displayed together by Joseph Leeson, later 1st Earl of Milltown, amongst religious pictures and portraits in the small drawing room at Russborough, Co. Wicklow.