1749 (ca.), Giovanni Paolo Panini, Roman Capriccio -- Ashmolean Museum (Oxford)
From the museum label: Panini's fantasies of Rome ('capricci') brought together famous ancient buildings and sculptures in an imaginary setting of magnificent ruins. These paintings were popular with British visitors as souvenirs of their sight-seeing in Rome.
The Colosseum, Trajan's Column and the Arch of Titus are seen in the distance. Statues of the Farnese Hercules, Hercules and the Hydra, and the Flora Farnese form a backdrop for a lively gathering of washerwomen and other figures. But a well-known moralizing story is also being told. The figures look towards a seated, almost naked man on the left, who watches a boy drinking water from his hands. He represents the philosopher Diogenes who lived with the barest essentials, even throwing away his cup after he realized he could drink water without it.
1749 (ca.), Giovanni Paolo Panini, Roman Capriccio -- Ashmolean Museum (Oxford)
From the museum label: Panini's fantasies of Rome ('capricci') brought together famous ancient buildings and sculptures in an imaginary setting of magnificent ruins. These paintings were popular with British visitors as souvenirs of their sight-seeing in Rome.
The Colosseum, Trajan's Column and the Arch of Titus are seen in the distance. Statues of the Farnese Hercules, Hercules and the Hydra, and the Flora Farnese form a backdrop for a lively gathering of washerwomen and other figures. But a well-known moralizing story is also being told. The figures look towards a seated, almost naked man on the left, who watches a boy drinking water from his hands. He represents the philosopher Diogenes who lived with the barest essentials, even throwing away his cup after he realized he could drink water without it.