A capriccio of classical ruins with soldiers and other figures conversing

The distant arch and the central sculpture of Apollo were used by Panini in the painting in the Banca Sannitica, Rome (F. Arisi, Giovanni Paolo Panini, Rome, 1986, p. 323, no. 184) and by artists in his studio (see, for instance, Capriccio of classical ruins, Christie's, London, 2 December 1979, lot 39). The figures and the ruins to the left differ in the present work from both of those paintings.