Background
Panini was born in Piacenza, Duchy of Parma, Holy Roman Empire (present-day Italy).
Piazza Accademia di S. Luca, 77, 00187 Roma RM, Italy
In 1718-1719 Panini was enrolled in the Accademia di San Luca.
architect artist draftsman educator
Panini was born in Piacenza, Duchy of Parma, Holy Roman Empire (present-day Italy).
Although Giovanni Paolo Panini was expected to build his career in the church, he studied architectural and perspective painting and trained under Andrea Galluzzi, Giuseppe Natali and stage designer Francesco Galli-Bibiena in his native town of Piacenza. When Panini arrived in Rome in 1711, he was already known to be an independent painter. However, he decided to pursue his education at the drawing academy of figure painter Benedetto Luti, which he attended between 1717 and 1718. In 1718-1719 Panini was enrolled in the Accademia di San Luca.
In his early years, Panini worked mainly as a fresco decorator of the villas and palaces of the Roman aristocracy. In 1719 he joined the staff of the Accademia di San Luca in Rome; in 1754 and 1755 he served as the Academy's principle.
Panini's associations with the French in Rome advanced his career significantly, particularly after his marriage to the sister-in-law of Nicolas Vleughels, director of the French Academy in Rome. Panini taught perspective and optics there. Giovanni Paolo Panini had famous patrons, for instance, he was supported by Cardinal Melchior de Polignac, Louis XV's chargé d'affaires in Rome from 1724 to 1732, and by the Duc de Choiseul, French Ambassador to Benedict XIV.
During his lifetime, Giovanni Paolo Panini was known to be an architect, who designed Cardinal Valenti's villa and the chapel in Santa Maria della Scala (1728), and produced fireworks, festival apparatuses, and other ephemeral architectural decorations. However, in the last thirty years of his life, he specialized in depicting the views of Rome that established his firm reputation. He produced paintings of two main types, vedute prese da i luoghi (views of actual places) and vedute ideate (imaginary views and combinations of particular buildings and monuments).
Panini's views of ancient and modern Rome embodied virtually everything worth depicting in the eighteenth-century guidebooks to the Eternal City. These were not symbolic representations but objective and precise depictions of the city. In the 1740s and 1750s, Panini produced numerous views of ancient and contemporary Rome which became very popular with tourists who visited Rome on the Grand Tour. The popularity of his paintings among the British in particular is confirmed by the the large number of paintings (and many replicas and copies) found in the British provinces.
The formative influences upon his style were the classical ruin paintings of Giovanni Ghisolfi, the landscapes of Jan Van Bloemen and Andrea Locatelli, and the topographical views of Gaspar Van Wittel (1653-1736). In addition to the view paintings, Panini produced religious and historical scenes, depicted Roman ruins, and painted real and imaginary architectural paintings. The tremendous size of Panini's oeuvre, the number of extant versions of certain compositions can be gauged by the fact that he ran a large workshop where his more popular works were reproduced. Panini's son Francesco served as his principal workshop assistant and ran the studio after the artist's death.
Architectural Capriccio
Roman ruins and sculpture
View of the Roman Forum
Interior of a Picture Gallery with the Collection of Cardinal Silvio Valenti Gonzaga
Capriccio of Classical Ruins
Musical Fête
A capriccio of classical ruins with Diogenes throwing away his cup
Roman Capriccio: The Pantheon and Other Monuments
Interior of St. Peter's, Rome
Ancient Roman Ruins
The Lottery at Palazzo Montecitorio
The interior of the Pantheon (Rome)
Gallery of Views of Modern Rome
Picture Gallery with Views of Modern Rome
Alexander the Great Cutting the Gordian Knot
The Adoration of the Magi
Interior of St Peter's in Rome
A Capriccio of the Roman Forum
View of the Colosseum
View of Rome from Mt. Mario, in the Southeast
The Abduction of Helen
Adoration of the Shepherds
Alexander the Great at the Tomb of Achilles
Antique Ruins
Apostle Paul Preaching on the Ruins
Architectural Capriccio
Architectural Capriccio, Arch of Titus with Figures
Capriccio of Classical Ruins
Capriccio of Roman Ruins with the Pantheon
Caprice architectural
Concert in a Circular Gallery
Expulsion of the Merchants from the Temple
In 1719 Giovanni Paolo Panini joined the Congregazione dei Virtuosi al Pantheon and the Accademia di San Luca. Panini became a member of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture in Paris, an honour accorded few Roman artists, in 1732.
Panini married a French woman, the sister-in-law of Nicolas Vleughels, director of the Académie de France at Rome, in 1724. Their marriage produced a son, Francesco Panini.