Lot Essay
Servandoni was born in Florence and was a pupil of Panini in Rome. After a stay in England, he arrived in Paris in 1724, and from 1726 he began a career as a decorator for the opera. He was also an architect and was responsible for the first designs of St. Sulpice (Paris), later modified by Maclauris and then by Chalgrin.
The present picture, dating from the artist's first year in Paris, can be compared with his morceau de réception for the Academy in 1731, in which the same Ionic temple and obelisk are repeated (see M. Roland-Michel, catalogue of the exhibition, Piranèse et les Français 1740-1790, Villa Medici, Rome, Palais des Etats de Bourgogne, Dijon, and Hôtel de Sully, Paris, May-Nov. 1976, pp. 330-4, no. 126, illustrated).
The present picture, dating from the artist's first year in Paris, can be compared with his morceau de réception for the Academy in 1731, in which the same Ionic temple and obelisk are repeated (see M. Roland-Michel, catalogue of the exhibition, Piranèse et les Français 1740-1790, Villa Medici, Rome, Palais des Etats de Bourgogne, Dijon, and Hôtel de Sully, Paris, May-Nov. 1976, pp. 330-4, no. 126, illustrated).