Interior Of The Pantheon, Rome
Interior Of The Pantheon,Rome by Italian Painter Giovanni Paolo Panini (1691 – 1765); known as an architect and painter of his vistas of Rome, detailing the antiquities of that great city.
This is a beautiful painting of the former Roman temple the Pantheon in Rome, that began construction in 27 BCE on the orders of Marcus Agrippa; with the round dome being built until the 2nd century, and the Emperor Hadrian after the building was damaged by fire in 80 CE and again in 110 CE after being struck by lightning.
In this daylight scene sunlight is streaming in through the open portal in the roof casting a circle of light on the wall that has windows around the perimeter.
Through the portal we can see two people looking through it at the people below which include men, women and children that are admiring the architecture and the sculptures that populate the building.
This is a retouched digital art old masters reproduction of a public domain image.
Info Below Derived From Wikipedia.org
Giovanni Paolo Panini or Giovanni Paolo Pannini was a painter and architect who worked in Rome and is primarily known as one of the vedutisti (“view painters”).
As a painter, Pannini is best known for his vistas of Rome, in which he took a particular interest in the city’s antiquities.
Among his most famous works are his view of the interior of the Pantheon (on behalf of Francesco Algarotti 1712 – 1764 – A Venetian Polymath), and his vedute paintings of picture galleries containing views of Rome.
Most of his works, especially those of ruins, have a fanciful and unreal embellishment characteristic of capriccio themes. In this they resemble the capricci of Italian Painter and Printmaker Marco Ricci (1676 – 1730).
Panini also painted portraits, including one of Pope Benedict XIV (born Prospero Lorenzo Lambertini 1675 – 1758 – Head of the Catholic Church from 1740 – 1758).
In Rome, Panini earned a name for himself as a decorator of palaces. Some of his works included the Villa Patrizi c1719/25, the Palazzo de Carolis c1720, and the Seminario Romano c1721/22).
In 1719, Panini was admitted to the Congregazione dei Virtuosi al Pantheon. He taught in Rome at the Accademia di San Luca and the Académie de France, where he is said to have influenced Jean-Honoré Fragonard. In 1754, he served as the prince (director) of the Accademia di San Luca.