GIOVANNI PAOLO PANINI (PIACENZA 1691-1765 ROME)

These two architectural capricci can be dated stylistically to the early years of Panini’s career, circa 1716-1718, prior to his admittance into the Academia di San Luca. The figures are very close in execution to a work of similar scale in the Pushkin Museum, Moscow, which shows the Coresus Sacrificing himself to Save Callirhoe (inv. no. Ж-4729). In the first of the present scenes the artist has populated the ornate classical colonnade with the Death of Ananias, a story from the Acts of the Apostles, in which Ananias lies to Saint Peter about money intended for donation to the Apostles and is struck down. In the second Panini has chosen to depict David, Bathsheba and Solomon. Previously the wife of Uriah the Hittite, Bathsheba was forced to commit adultery with King David. After Uriah was killed in battle, David married Bathsheba, who went on to give him a son, Solomon, shown here as a young boy.