Interior of the Pantheon, Rome

c. 1734

Giovanni Paolo Panini

Artist, Roman, 1691 - 1765

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.

Media Options

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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.

More information on this painting can be found in the Gallery publication Italian Paintings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, which is available as a free PDF https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/research/publications/pdfs/italian-paintings-17th-and-18th-centuries.pdf

On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 30

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Samuel H. Kress Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 128 x 99 cm (50 3/8 x 39 in.)
    framed: 144.1 x 114.3 cm (56 3/4 x 45 in.)

  • Accession

    1939.1.24

Artwork history & notes

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. See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/1109). 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).

Associated Names

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, no. 135, 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

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 87, repro., as The Interior of the Pantheon.

1972

  • Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, Mass., 1972: 157.

1973

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XVI-XVIII Century. London, 1973: 122, fig. 242.

1975

  • Wixom, Nancy Coe. "Panini: Interior of the Pantheon, Rome." Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 62 (1975): 265-267, fig. 2.

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 258, repro., as The Interior of the Pantheon.

1979

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. Washington, 1979: 1:349-351; 2: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. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 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.

Inscriptions

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

Wikidata ID

Q19904602

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