Ruins of a Triumphal Arch in the Roman Campagna

between 1717 and 1719

Giovanni Paolo Panini Italian, 1691-1765

On View

European: Grand Tour of Italy, Level 2, South Wing

European: Grand Tour of Italy-Rome, Level 2, South Wing

Image Only Image + Details All Images High Resolution TIFF Metadata

About the Artwork

Please note: This section is empty
Markings

Please note: This section is empty

This section contains information about signatures, inscriptions and/or markings an object may have.
Provenance

Please note: This section is empty

Provenance is a record of an object's ownership. We are continually researching and updating this information to show a more accurate record and to ensure that this object was ethically and legally obtained.

For more information on provenance and its important function in the museum, please visit:
Exhibition History

Please note: This section is empty

The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

We welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.
Published References

Please note: This section is empty

We regularly update our object record as new research and findings emerge, and we welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.
Catalogue Raisonné

Please note: This section is empty

A catalogue raisonné is an annotated listing of artworks created by an artist across different media.
Credit Line for Reproduction

Please note: This section is empty

The credit line includes information about the object, such as the artist, title, date, and medium. Also listed is its ownership, the manner in which it was acquired, and its accession number. This information must be cited alongside the object whenever it is shown or reproduced.

About the Artwork

In this fine example of an early Roman ruin painting, Giovanni Paolo Panini brought together elements of disparate monuments - from the Arch of Titus, the Temple of Vespasian, and the Forum of Nerva - to create a triumphal arch that is wholly the product of his imagination. Each individual element would have been readily recognizable to Panini's well-traveled clientele, who delighted in opportunities to test their knowledge of classical architecture. While such works were intended to pose witty challenges to their viewer, Panini has also introduced a serious element. The small figures who go blithely about their daily affairs in and around crumbling columns and plinths are a sobering reminder that, with the passage of time, all life will one day lie in ruins.

Title Ruins of a Triumphal Arch in the Roman Campagna

Artwork Date between 1717 and 1719

Artist Giovanni Paolo Panini

Life Dates 1691-1765

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. Italian

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. Unknown

Medium Oil on canvas

Dimensions Unframed: 29 × 24 1/8 inches (73.7 × 61.3 cm) Framed: 36 1/2 × 32 × 3 inches (92.7 × 81.3 × 7.6 cm)

Classification Paintings

Department European Painting

Credit Gift of James E. Scripps

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 89.20

Markings

Inscriptions ------

Provenance

ca. 1717-1719, probably Compton Domvile probably by descent to his great-nephew, Sir Compton Domvile, of Templeogue and Santry (near Dublin, Ireland)

Major Corbett-Winder (Vaynor Park, Berriew, Wales)

April 6, 1889, sold by (Christie's, London, England) Corbett-Winder sale, lot 89

1889, purchased by James E. Scripps (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

1889-present, gift to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

For more information on provenance and its important function in the museum, please visit:

Provenance page

Exhibition History

Please note: This section is empty

The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

We welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.

Suggest Feedback

Published References

Scripps, James E., ed. Catalogue of the Scripps Collection of Old Masters. Detroit, 1889, p. 63, no. 80.

"The Scripps Old Masters," The Collector 2, no. 13 (May 1, 1891): pp. 149-152, p. 151 [as "A Ruined Triumphal Arch Dedicated to the Emperor Vespasian; with Figures”].

Scripps, James E. Handbook of the Paintings Ancient and Modern, Belonging to the Detroit Museum of Art. Detroit, 1895, p. 35, no. 68 [as "A Ruined Triumphal Arch Dedicated to the Emperor Vespasian; with Figures”].

Handbook of Paintings by the Old Masters Belonging to the Detroit Museum of Art. Detroit, 1910, p. 45, no. 68.

The Detroit Institute of Arts of the City of Detroit, Catalogue of Paintings, Sculpture and Contemporary Arts and Crafts. Detroit, 1920, p. 35, no. 22.

Heil, Walter and Clyde H. Burroughs. Catalogue of Paintings in the Permanent Collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts of the City of Detroit. Detroit, 1930, unpaginated, no. 164 (ill.).

Richardson, E.P., ed. Detroit Institute of Arts, Catalogue of Paintings. Detroit, 1944, p. 99, no. 164.

Arisi, Ferdinando. Gian Paolo Panini. Milan, 1961, pp. 55, 59, 136–37, no. 73, fig. 124 (ill.).

Paintings in the Detroit Institute of Arts: A Check List of the Paintings Acquired Before June, 1965. Detroit, 1965, p. 84.

"Appendix IV: Loans to Museums and Art Galleries." Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts 51, no. 1 (1972): p. 41.

Rome Through the Eyes of the Eighteenth Century. Exh. cat., University of Michigan Museum of Art. Ann Arbor, 1972, pp. 10–11 no. 27 (ill.). [as by an unknown follower of Panini]

Fredericksen, Burton B. and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Collections. Cambridge, MA, 1972, pp. 156, 579.

Busiri Vici, Andrea. Andrea Locatelli e il paesaggio romano del Settecento. Rome, 1976, p. 34.

Arisi, Ferdinando. Gian Paolo Panini: e i fasti della Roma del ‘700. Rome, 1986, pp. 73, 267, 284, no. 123 (ill.).

Masterpieces from The Detroit Institute of Arts. Exh. cat., Bunkamura Museum of Art; Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art. Tokyo, Kyoto, and Ibaraki, 1989, pp. 66, 210, cat. 34 (ill.).

Important Old Master Paintings. Sales cat., Sotheby’s, New York, May 16, 1996, unpaginated. [see lot 68]

Bissell, R. Ward, Andria Derstine and Dwight Miller. Masters of Italian Baroque Painting: The Detroit Institute of Arts. London, 2005, pp. 8, 134–135, no. 43 (ill.).

Derstine, Andria. "The Detroit Institute of Arts and Italian Baroque Painting." Buying Baroque: Italian Seventeenth-Century Paintings Come to America. Edgar Peters Bowron, ed. University Park, 2017, p. 94.

Kindly share your feedback or any additional information, as this record is still a work in progress and may need further refinement.

Suggest Feedback

Catalogue Raisoneé

Please note: This section is empty

Credit Line for Reproduction

Giovanni Paolo Panini, Ruins of a Triumphal Arch in the Roman Campagna, between 1717 and 1719, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of James E. Scripps, 89.20.