Ancient Rome is a name given to each of three almost identical paintings by Italian artist Giovanni Paolo Panini, produced as pendant paintings to Modern Rome for his patron, the comte de Stainville, in the 1750s. The paintings depict many of the most significant architectural sites and sculptures from ancient Rome, such as the Colosseum, the Pantheon, Laocoön and His Sons, the Farnese Hercules, the Apollo Belvedere and the Borghese Gladiator. Both Panini and Stainville are featured in the paintings; Stainville stands holding a guidebook, while Panini appears behind Stainville's armchair.
This picture shows the second version of the work, held in New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, painted in oil on canvas and dated 1757. The other two versions are in the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart and the Louvre in Paris.Painting credit: Giovanni Paolo Panini