Giovanni Paolo, also known as Gian Paolo PaniniorPannini (17 June 1691 – 21 October 1765), was an Italian painter and architect who worked in Rome and is primarily known as one of the vedutisti ("view painters"). As a painter, Panini 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), 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 capricciofMarco Ricci. Panini also painted portraits, including one of Pope Benedict XIV.[1]
In 1724 he married Miss Gossert, sister-in-law of Wengkels, director of the French Academy in Rome, with whom he had two sons: Giuseppe Pannini (Rome, 1720-1812),[2][3][4] the architect, and Francesco Panini (Rome, 1745 - 1812), the painter, who followed in his father's footsteps and manners.
In Rome, Panini earned a name for himself as a decorator of palaces. Some of his works included the Villa Patrizi (1719–1725), the Palazzo de Carolis (1720), and the Seminario Romano (1721–1722). 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.
German soldiers in 1944 posing with a Pannini picture – Carlo III di Borbone che visita il papa Benedetto XIV nella coffee-house del Quirinale a Roma – at the time looted from the Naples Museum
Panini's studio included Hubert Robert and his son Francesco Panini. His style influenced other vedutisti, such as his pupils Antonio Joli and Charles-Louis Clérisseau, as well as Canaletto and Bernardo Bellotto, who sought to meet the need of visitors for painted "postcards" depicting the Italian environs.[citation needed] Some British landscape painters, such as Marlow, Skelton and Wright of Derby, also imitated his capricci.[citation needed]
In addition to being a painter and architect, Panini was a professor of perspective and optics at the French Academy of Rome. His masterful use of perspective was later the inspiration for the creation of the "Panini Projection", which is instrumental in rendering panoramic views.
[1][2]
The delivery of the Order of the Holy Spirit to Prince Vaini by the Duke of Saint-Aignan in the Saint-Louis-des-Français church, September 15, 1737 (c. 1745), oil on canvas, 72 x 98 cm., Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen
Musical feast given by the cardinal de La Rochefoucauld in the Teatro Argentina in Rome in 1747 on the occasion of the marriage of Dauphin, son of Louis XV (1747), oil on canvas, 207 x 247 cm., Louvre
View of Rome from Mt. Mario, in the Southeast (1749), oil on canvas, 102 x 168 cm., Gemäldegalerie, Berlin
^"Pannini, Giovanni Paolo nell'Enciclopedia Treccani". www.treccani.it (in Italian). Retrieved 2023-04-25. Translated: Of his sons, Giuseppe (Rome 1720 - 1812), was architect and archaeologist, Francesco (Rome 1725 circa - there after 1794), collaborator of his father, was the author of views for engravings.
^"PANNINI, Gian paolo in "Enciclopedia Italiana"". www.treccani.it (in Italian). Retrieved 2023-04-25. Translated: In 1724 he had married Miss Gossert, sister-in-law of Wengkels, director of the French Academy, with whom he had two sons: Giuseppe the architect and Francesco the painter, who followed in his father's footsteps and manners.
Arisi, Ferdinando (1986). Gian Paolo Panini e i fasti della Roma del '700 [Gian Paolo Panini and events in 18th c. Rome.] (in Italian). ISBN88-7003-016-4.
Arisi, Ferdinando,Giovanni Paolo Panini 1691-1765, Milano, 1993.
Horak, Marco, Ritornato a Piacenza il dipinto di Panini passato all'asta lo scorso anno a Londra: si tratta dell' "opera prima", pendant di quello esposto alla Glauco Lombardi di Parma, in "Strenna Piacentina 2013", Piacenza, 2013.
Horak, Marco, Quell'opera prima di Panini gemella del dipinto esposto al Lombardi di Parma, in "L'Urtiga - Quaderni di cultura Piacentina", Piacenza, n. 4, 2013.
Horak, Marco, L'opera prima del Panini in una collezione privata, in "Panorama Musei", anno XVIII, n.3, dicembre 2013
Horak, Marco, G.P. Panini al Fine Art Museum di San Francisco, in "Panorama Musei", anno XXI, n. 2, settembre 2016
Horak, Marco, Giovanni Ghisolfi tra Salvator Rosa e Giovanni Paolo Panini, Piacenza, 2020
Bryan, Michael (1904). Williamson, George Charles (ed.). Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers. Vol. IV: N-R (new revised and enlarged ed.). London: George Bell and Sons. p. 62; Entry on Giovanni Paulo Pannini & Giuseppe Pannini{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
Art and the empire city: New York, 1825-1861, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Panini (see index)
Media related to Giovanni Paolo Pannini at Wikimedia Commons
