Property of the late Marcello Violante Attributed to Giovan...

Hammer

£4,500

Property of the late Marcello Violante

Attributed to Giovanni Paolo Panini (1691 - 1765)
Figures admiring Roman ruins

Black chalk, pen and brown and grey ink, watercolour heightened with body colour, watermark Strasburg Lily
In a carved and gilded period frame

Provenance:

• Jean Mottinguer


• Peter J. Sharp (1930 - 1992)


• Christie’s London, July 8th 2008, Lot 52 ($19,758)

Exhibitions:
New York, National Academy of Design, European Master Drawings from the collection of Peter J. Sharp, 1994, no. 23 (as Giovanni Paolo Panini), entry by L. Wolk-Simon

Dimensions
(Paper) 17 in. (H) x 12 in. (W)
(Frame) 26 in. (H) x 20 in. (W)

In this drawing, Panini shows his debt to the tradition of architectural scenography as well as his interest in antiquities. The ruinous building, with arcades and Doric columns, its roof open to the skies and its masonry overgrown with weeds, is seen in a typically deep perspective from a low viewpoint. The figure in the centre showing off some feature of the remains to a cloaked man resting on a stick is, according to Professor Arisi, a variation of a similar one who, facing in the opposite direction, points out the statue of a warrior by Agasius in an Architectural Capriccio in the Albertina, Vienna (inv.no. 2939) signed with monogram and datable circa 1750. The Vienna drawing, from the collection of PJ. Mariette, is a more elaborate composition with a greater emphasis on sculpture, but presents a similar architectural fantasy of a ruined arcade seen from below. Panini made drawings like these as independent works, for the collector's portfolio, rather than as studies for pictures.