Roma Antica - Giovanni Paolo Panini

Gift of Emily Crane Chadbourne

"Roma Antica" by Giovanni Paolo Panini (1757/60) Pen and black ink, watercolor, and brush and gray wash, heightened with touches of white gouache, over graphite, on ivory laid paper, laid down on cream laid card.

Commentary

"Roma Antica" by Giovanni Paolo Panini (1757/60) invites a close look at how form and feeling work together. Its painted surface guides your eye through color, brushwork, and contrast rather than through narrative alone. Themes to not ice include watercolor. This piece is held in the source collection's Prints and Drawings collection. Giovanni Paolo Panini is the artist behind this work. A useful anchor for reading the piece: After Giovanni Paolo Panini Italian, 1691-1765. The work is cataloged within a Italy cultural context. How to look at this work: It is cataloged as watercolor, which gives a clue to how the museum frames the object. Its medium (Pen and black ink, watercolor, and brush and gray wash, heightened with touches of white gouache, over graphite, on ivory laid paper, laid down on cream laid card) affects texture, durability, and how detail reads at different distances. Its listed dimensions (44.3 × 69.6 cm (17 1/2 × 27 7/16 in.)) suggest how intimate or monumental it may feel in person. Subject cues from the catalog include watercolor. Compare this reading with the museum record at the source collection: https://www.artic.edu/artworks/84092

Sources: Art Institute of Chicago; Art Institute of Chicago / Public Records; Art Institute of Chicago Collection Data