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| Gian Paolo Panini Alexander visiting the Tomb of Achilles (detail) ca. 1719 oil on canvas Accademia di San Luca, Rome |
"Gian Paolo Panini received his initial training in his native city of Piacenza as a trompe l'oeil, architectural, and theatrical set painter with Giuseppe Natali, Andrea Galluzzi and Francesco Galli-Bibiena. In 1711 he moved to Rome to learn figure drawing with the painter Benedetto Luti. Panini also studied with Andrea Locatelli, a landscape and decorative fresco painter. His first documented commission was for the fresco decoration of the rooms in the Villa Patrizi in Rome (now lost), executed between 1719 and 1725. During these years Panini acquired a precocious reputation among Roman artistic circles and in 1718 became a member of the Congregazione dei Virtuosi al Pantheon, while the following year he joined the Accademia di San Luca, presenting as his entry work Alexander visiting the Tomb of Achilles, his first documented easel painting [directly above]. Over the course of the following years Panini worked on important decorative cycles in fresco, many of which have not survived. As an easel painter, he primarily focused on real and imaginary views of Rome with classical ruins or modern monuments and buildings."
– from curator's notes at Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
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| Gian Paolo Panini Marriage at Cana ca. 1725 oil on canvas Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky |
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| Gian Paolo Panini Apostle preaching among Ruins ca. 1758 oil on canvas Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky |
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| Gian Paolo Panini St Paul preaching among Ruins ca. 1735 oil on canvas Museo del Prado, Madrid |
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| Gian Paolo Panini St Paul preaching among Ruins 1744 oil on canvas Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Gian Paolo Panini St Paul preaching at Athens 1737 oil on canvas Wellington Collection, Apsley House, London |
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| Gian Paolo Panini St Paul preaching among Ruins ca. 1735-45 oil on canvas Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels |
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| Gian Paolo Panini St Paul at Malta grasping the Viper 1735 oil on canvas Wellington Collection, Apsley House, London |
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| Gian Paolo Panini Woman preaching among Ruins ca. 1735 oil on canvas Museo del Prado, Madrid |
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| Gian Paolo Panini Capriccio of Roman Ruins ca. 1735 oil on canvas Indianapolis Museum of Art |
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| Gian Paolo Panini Capriccio of Roman Ruins 1735 oil on canvas Royal Collection, Great Britain |
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| Gian Paolo Panini Capriccio of Roman Ruins 1737 oil on canvas Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |
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| Gian Paolo Panini Capriccio of Roman Ruins ca. 1735 oil on canvas Indianapolis Museum of Art |
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| Gian Paolo Panini Capriccio of Roman Ruins 1735 oil on canvas Royal Collection, Great Britain |
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| Gian Paolo Panini Capriccio of Roman Ruins ca. 1740 oil on canvas Royal Collection, Great Britain |