A Capriccio with the Arch of Constantine and the Capitoline Lion Group

Giovanni Paolo Panini was the foremost painter of capricci in Rome during the mid-eighteenth century. He trained in his native Piacenza under the quadraturisti Giuseppe Natali and Andrea Galluzzi, from whom he mastered perspective, and the set designer Francesco Galli Bibiena, from whom he learned to stage his compositions for optimal dramatic effect. In 1711, he settled in Rome, where he rapidly became one of the city’s most successful painters, securing the patronage of leading collectors such as Pope Innocent XIII, for whom he decorated the mezzanine apartment of the Palazzo Quirinale in 1742-43, and the connoisseur and French ambassador to Rome, Étienne François, Duc de Choiseul.

In this painting, the Arch of Constantine is depicted with striking monumentality through an engaging diagonal perspective. Panini animates the scene with four elegantly positioned figures set amidst architectural fragments, punctuated by the dynamic sculptural motif of a lion attacking a horse—modeled after the celebrated marble group in the Capitoline Museums, Rome (inv. no. MC1182). Characteristic of Panini’s finest work, the painting is animated by swift, precise brushwork and a masterful handling of light, capturing both the grandeur and the picturesque decay of ancient Rome with verisimilitude and flair.