National Gallery of Art :: The Collection :: Interior of the Pantheon, Rome
  • Overview
  • Inscription
  • Provenance
  • Exhibition History
  • Bibliography

Overview

In Panini's day, as in our own, the Pantheon was one of the great tourist attractions of Rome. Built under Hadrian in the 2nd century, this monumental domed temple has survived intact, owing to its consecration as a Christian church—Santa Maria Rotunda—in AD 609. Panini's depiction is populated with foreign visitors and a lively mix of Romans from all social strata who congregate in the Pantheon to pray, to chat, and to admire the wondrous architecture.

Trained in architecture and theatrical design, Panini manipulated the perspective to show a larger view of the interior than is actually possible from any single place. The viewpoint is deep within the building, facing the entrance. The portals open to the colossal columns of the porch and a glimpse of the obelisk in the piazza before the church. Through the oculus in the center of the dome, Panini revealed the bright blue sky flecked with clouds.

As Canaletto was to Venice, so Panini was to Rome. Both artists documented with exacting skill and vibrancy the monuments of their cities and the daily comings and goings of the inhabitants. In this case, Panini depicted the classical landmark that inspired the design of the Rotunda in the National Gallery's West Building.

Inscription

on the collar of the dome: [LAVDATE] DOMINVM IN SANCTIS EIVS LAVS EIVS IN ECCLE[SIA SANCTORVM]

Marks and Labels

null

Provenance

The Dowager Countess of Norfolk;[1] (Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 20 November 1925, no. 69); bought by (William Sabin, London);[2] sold presumably by him to (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Rome); purchased October 1927 by Samuel H. Kress [1863-1955], New York;[3] gift 1939 to NGA.

[1] Oral communication from Charles Beddington, Christie's, 17 March 1993.

[2] Art Prices Current, n.s. 5 (1925-1926): 29, no. 618.

[3] The bill of sale for sculpture, maiolica, furniture, antique velvet, and several paintings, including NGA 1939.1.24, is dated 5 October 1927 (copy in NGA curatorial files). The Panini was the first non-Renaissance Italian painting acquired by Kress (see Edgar Peters Bowron, "The Kress Brothers and Their 'Bucolic Pictures': The Creation of an Italian Baroque Collection", in A Gift to America: Masterpieces of European Painting from the Samuel H. Kress Collection, Exh. cat. North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, 1994: 43, fig. 2).

Exhibition History

1929
Il Settecento Italiano, Palazzo delle Biennali, Venice, 1929, no. 32, no. 12.
1931
Loan for display with permanent collection, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1931-1932.
1932
An Exhibition of Italian Paintings Lent by Mr. Samuel H. Kress of New York to Museums, Colleges, and Art Associations, travelling exhibition, 24 venues, 1932-1935, mostly unnumbered catalogues, p. 27 or p. 31, repro.
1940
Masterpieces of Art. European & American Paintings 1500-1900, New York World's Fair, 1940, no. 37.
2000
Art in Rome in the Eighteenth Century, Philadelphia Museum of Art; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2000, no. 266, repro.
2010
L'Antiquité rêvée. Innovations et résistances au XVIIIe siècle [Antiquity Revived. Neoclassical Art in the Eighteenth Century], Musée du Louvre, Paris; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2010-2011, no. 35 and repro. (French cat.), not in English cat. (shown only in Paris).

Bibliography

1926
Gaunt, William. Rome Past and Present. London, 1926: 7, color pl. 69.
1941
Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 146, as The Interior of the Pantheon.
1942
Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 242, repro. 162, as The Interior of the Pantheon.
1945
Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1945 (reprinted 1947, 1949): 142, repro., as The Interior of the Pantheon.
1951
Einstein, Lewis. Looking at Italian Pictures in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1951: 108, repro. 110.
1952
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Great Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1952: 74, color repro., as The Interior of the Pantheon.
1959
Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 254, repro., as The Interior of the Pantheon.
1960
The National Gallery of Art and Its Collections. Foreword by Perry B. Cott and notes by Otto Stelzer. National Gallery of Art, Washington (undated, 1960s): 24, repro.
1961
Arisi, Ferdinando. Gian Paolo Panini. Piacenza, 1961: 161-162, no. 136, figs. 186-187.
1964
Brunetti, Estella. "Il Panini e la monografia di F. Arisi." Arte Antica e Moderna 26 (1964): 182.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 99, as The Interior of the Pantheon.
1966
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:328, color repro.
1968
European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1968: 87, repro., as The Interior of the Pantheon.
1972
Fredericksen and Zeri 1972, 157.
1973
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XVI-XVIII Century. London, 1973: 122, fig. 242.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 258, repro., as The Interior of the Pantheon.
1975
Wixom, Nancy Coe. "Panini: Interior of the Pantheon, Rome." Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 62 (1975): 265-267, fig. 2.
1979
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: I:349-351, II:pl. 254, as Interior of the Pantheon.
1982
European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries: The Cleveland Museum of Art Catalogue of Paintings, part three. Cleveland, 1982: 384.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 346, no. 476, color repro., as Interior of the Pantheon.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 298, repro.
1986
Arisi, Ferdinando. Gian Paolo Panini e i fasti della Roma del '700. Rome, 1986: 373, repro., no. 283, pl. 129 (detail).
1992
National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 118, repro.
1993
Arisi, Ferdinando, ed. Giovanni Paolo Panini 1691-1765. Exh. cat. Palazzo Gorico, Piacenza. Milan, 1993: 40-41, repro.
1994
Bowron, Edgar Peters. "The Kress Brothers and Their 'Bucolic Pictures': The Creation of an Italian Baroque Collection." In A Gift to America: Masterpieces of European Painting from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. Exh. cat. North Carolina Museum of Art. Raleigh, and New York, 1994: 43, fig. 2.
1996
De Grazia, Diane, and Eric Garberson, with Edgar Peters Bowron, Peter M. Lukehart, and Mitchell Merling. Italian Paintings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1996: 189-193, color repro. 191.
1997
Wilkins, David G. and Bernard Schultz and Katheryn M. Linduff. Art Past-Art Present, New York, 1997, no. 3-117, repro.
1998
Hill, Claudia. “Sanctuary." In Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography: Themes Depicted in Works of Art. Edited by Helene E. Roberts. 2 vols. Chicago, 1998: 2:787.
2004
Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 243, no. 193, color repro.

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