Giovanni Paolo Panini

As one of the vedutisti—or “view painters”—of Italy, Giovanni Paolo Panini was highly regarded for his precise renderings of real and imaginary views of Rome. Panini began his career by training under a stage designer in his native city Piacenza, followed by a move to study figure drawing in the city that would ultimately define his subject matter: Rome. Panini captured the ancient and modern architecture of the Romans, often combining multiple views of the city in one painting by depicting the monuments as artwork arranged in an extravagant gallery. Panini was one of the first artists to concentrate on painting the ancient ruins, which he rendered in a surreal, illusionistic style. In addition to view paintings, Panini was also successful with architecture, stage design, portraits, and decorative frescoes (the latter two projects commissioned for Pope Benedict XIV.)