Roma Antica

Giovanni Paolo Panini · 1757/60

Medium

Pen and black ink, watercolor, and brush and gray wash, heightened with touches of white gouache, over graphite, on ivory laid paper, laid down on cream laid card

Original size

44.3 × 69.6 cm (17 1/2 × 27 7/16 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Rococo

Roma Antica presents Panini's vision of ancient Rome at its most theatrical — a grand imaginary interior crowded with famous monuments, sculptures, and ruins arranged as if on display in a collector's dream gallery. Giovanni Paolo Panini was the foremost painter of Roman vedute in the eighteenth century, celebrated across Europe for his ability to conjure the grandeur of antiquity with architectural precision and painterly warmth. This work, executed in pen and black ink, watercolor, and gray wash with touches of white gouache over graphite, reveals his mastery in a more intimate register than his large oils — the layered washes building depth and atmosphere with remarkable economy. The heightening in white gouache catches light on columns and cornices in a way that feels almost three-dimensional on the pale laid paper. Panini produced two celebrated companion compositions around this period — one depicting ancient Rome, one modern Rome — originally commissioned by the French ambassador to the Vatican, the Duc de Choiseul, a commission that cemented his reputation as the definitive interpreter of the eternal city. Our hand-painted oil reproduction translates Panini's layered tones and architectural drama into the richness of oil on canvas, preserving the sense of accumulated history and golden light that makes the original so quietly commanding.