Classical Ruins with the Arch of Constantine
Giovanni Paolo Panini (Piacanza c.1692 - Rome 1765)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1712 - 1765
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
972 x 1346 mm (38 1/4 x 53 in)
Place of origin
Rome
Order this imageCollection
Stourhead, Wiltshire
NT 732086
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Classical Ruins with the Arch of Constantine by Giovanni Paolo Panini (Piacenza c. 1692 - Rome 1765). A group of figures, including a solider wearing armour, sit among the ruins of classical buildings which include the Arch of Constantine. At the far left is a castellated building with a central tower and below it on a grassy mound, a temple fragment with five ionic columns. Five figures sit and stand to the right of the temple and look towards the Arch of Constantine which dwarfs all other structures in the right middleground. At the centre of the picture, to the left of the arch, is a statue of a male figure set upon a plinth decorated with carved swags. The right elbow of the statue, possibly Hercules or Apollo, is raised and the figure leans against a stump at the left. An old man wearing white drapery stands at the foot of the plinth and another figure with a black and white dog stands in the shadow of the Arch. A smaller statue, probably also male and possibly Meleager, is located beneath the Arch at centre right. A large stone wheel, the fragment of a carved frieze and other stone fragments lie on the ground in the foreground and a large column with a carved base can be seen at the far right.
Provenance
Acquired by Henry II Hoare (1705-85) before 1762; removed before his death; returned from Wavendon in 1897; given to the National Trust along with the house, its grounds, and the rest of contents by Sir Henry Hugh Arthur Hoare, 6th Bt (1865 – 1947) in 1946.
Credit line
Stourhead, The Hoare Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
Giovanni Paolo Panini (Piacanza c.1692 - Rome 1765) , artist
References
Stourhead Wiltshire, 1992: List of Pictures, [National Trust; Anthony Mitchell & Alastair Laing] 1992 , p.16