An architectural capriccio with the Farnese Hercules

Giovanni Paolo Panini and his studio specialized in vedute and capricci of Roman ruins. The present painting takes inspiration from a composition in a Roman private collection. While elements of the invented architecture and the figures have been altered, the artist quotes Panini’s depiction of the Farnese Hercules and the Arch of Janus (see F. Arisi, Gian Paolo Panini e i fasti della Roma ‘700, Rome, 1968, p. 411, no. 361). When this painting was offered in 1993, Professor Ferdinando Arisi considered it to be an autograph work on the basis of a transparency.
We are grateful to Professor David R. Marshall for proposing the attribution on the basis of photographs and for his assistance with the cataloging.