A capriccio of classical ruins with three figures conversing before a statue of a River God

Two of the figures and the arcade in the background of the present work can be found in a smaller capriccio by the artist, formerly with Herner-Wengraf, London. Arisi dates this piece in reference to two pictures from 1757 in the Harcourt collection (F. Arisi, Gian Paolo Panini, Rome, 1986, no. 488). A 19th-century English inscription on the strecther states that this picture was formerly signed with initials. A number of other canvases of the same size by Panini are recorded (ibid., nos. 115, 123, 213-4, 234-5, 296-7 and 459).