Provenance

William Sabin

British

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Dozens of men and women wander through a tall interior space lined with statues and columns and topped by a soaring domed roof in this vertical painting. The people are small in scale within the cavernous space. The women wear long, full dresses and the men wear knee-length waistcoats and stockings in shades of dark blue, crimson red, pine green, marigold orange, or brown. Three people wear clothing of the clergy: two of them, on our left, wear long, ginger-brown robes under white mantles, and a third person on our right wears a hip-length, diaphanous white cape over a long dark blue robe. The crowd strolls, kneels, converses, or leans back to look up at the high ceiling overhead, which has a round opening at its apex. A glimpse white of azure-blue sky with white clouds is visible through the opening. The interior is divided into three levels. The ground level has five niches lining the walls, each with a white stone statue of a man or woman standing inside. Each statue is at least three times the height of the people in the space below. The three niches closest to us on our left and right have semicircular pediments with garnet-red or moss-green columns flanking the statues. Two niches at the far end have triangular pediments and honey-gold columns. Each niche sits on a wide base, presumably an altar, and is surrounded by marbled gold and purple panels set against a sage-green background. Sets of three honey-gold columns line the wall between each niche. Oversized, copper-green double doors are swung inward at the far side of the space. More people, a sunlit obelisk, blue sky, and slivers of other buildings are visible through the doorway. The second level of the interior has windows spaced across walls otherwise covered with white, blue, and mauve-pink panels. An inscription running around the building between the first and second level reads, “DOMINVM IN SANCTIS EIVS LAVS EIVS IN ECCLE.” The third level is the domed pewter-gray ceiling with coffers, like inwardly stepped panels. The floor is patterned with alternating circles and rectangles in sage green or light brown.
Giovanni Paolo Panini, Interior of the Pantheon, Rome, c. 1734, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.24

Interior of the Pantheon, Rome

Giovanni Paolo Panini · c. 1734 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1939.1.24

This painting depicts two people, an adult man and a young boy. The man is seen from the knees up, standing with one arm on a table and the other on his hip. He has light skin, light green eyes, a brown beard and mustache, and dark hair under a black cap. He is wearing a bright red jacket with several buttons down the front, which is open to reveal a white garment with several pleats and folds. The boy, who has short brown hair and fair skin, leans against the man's leg, tying a bow on the white garment and looking over his shoulder at us. He wears a yellow outfit with subtle white stripes. On the left is a table covered with dark green fabric which the man has his hand on; there are three books on it, and a letter on white paper propped up against the books. The background is a muted green-brown color.
North Italian 16th Century, Gian Paolo Pace, Alessandro Alberti with a Page, possibly 1544/1545, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.80

Alessandro Alberti with a Page

North Italian 16th Century, Gian Paolo Pace · possibly 1544/1545 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1952.5.80