PANINI (PANNINI), GIOVANNI PAOLO

POPE BENEDICT XIV VISITING THE TREVI FONTAIN

This work depicts the visit of Pope Benedict XIV in July 1744 to the Trevi Fountain, designed by the architect Nicola Salvi (he depicted himself in the right hand part of the picture, kneeling before the Pope). In this canvas the fountain is shown as if completed, however work on it continued until 1762. Panini painted the fountain not from life but using a model made in 1735 by Paolo Camporese.

Provenance: in the collection of the Counts Panin-Saltykov and held in their Dugino estate in the Sychevskii District of the Smolensk Province till 1919; later held in the Municipal Museum of the town of Sychevka in the Smolensk Region; in the Pushkin Museum since 1926.