An Extensive Landscape

Two extensive landscapes constitute the only known examples of a collaboration between Gian Paolo Panini, the most celebrated view-painter in 18th-century Rome, and Paolo Anesi, arguably the most accomplished landscapist of his time. Both paintings were almost certainly designed by Panini, as the numerous related preparatory drawings suggest, but the landscapes in both works were executed by Anesi. Anesi seems to have been responsible for the landscapes and distant figures in each painting, whilst Panini executed the main protagonists and buildings in the foreground.

The present extensive landscape depicts villas and figures, including Pannini himself, dining beneath a pergola in the foreground. The pendant extensive landscape depicts carriages and elegant figures on a road, including Pannini himself, gardens and fields on either side.