Classical Ruins with the Arch of Constantine

Giovanni Paolo Panini (Piacanza c.1692 - Rome 1765) . Oil painting on canvas, Classical Ruins with the Arch of Constantine by Giovanni Paolo Panini (Piacenza c. 1692 - Rome 1765). A group of figures, including a solider wearing armour, sit among the ruins of classical buildings which include the Arch of Constantine. At the far left is a castellated building with a central tower and below it on a grassy mound, a temple fragment with five ionic columns. Five figures sit and stand to the right of the temple and look towards the Arch of Constantine which dwarfs all other structures in the right middleground. At the centre of the image, to the left of the arch, is a statue of a male figure set upon a plinth decorated with carved swags. The right elbow of the statue is raised and the figure leans against a stump at the left. An old man wearing white drapery stands at the foot of the plinth and another figure with a black and white dog stands in the shadow of the Arch. A smaller statue, probably also male, is located beneath the Arch at centre right. A large stone wheel, the fragment of a carved frieze and other stone fragments lie on the ground in the foreground and a large column with a carved base can be seen at the far right. Stourhead, Wiltshire (Accredited Museum)