  About the Artwork
  
  
  Giovanni Paolo Panini, an architect and painter who taught perspective at the French Academy in Rome, glorified that city in countless realistic views of its monuments as well as in architectural fantasies in which imaginary ruins and identifiable buildings coexist, challenging the viewer to differentiate reality from fiction.

This interior of Saint Peter's Basilica is one of approximately thirty depictions made by Panini of the Renaissance and Baroque church that had been designed by Michelangelo and Gian Lorenzo Bernini, among others. At the very end of the light-filled interior stands Bernini’s famous additions to basilica, the bronze and gilded canopy (baldachin) and Chair of Saint Peter (a modello of which also exists in the Detroit Institute of Art’s collections). What truly enlivens the painting, however, are the small figures scattered throughout the vast basilica. Shown kneeling in reverence, admiring the sights, or animatedly conversing with each other, these individualized men and women of all ages and walks of life offer a fascinating slice of contemporary Rome.
  
  
  Title
  Interior of St. Peter&#039;s, Rome
  
  
  Artwork Date
  1750
  
  Artist
  Giovanni Paolo Panini
  
  
  
  Life Dates
  1691-1765
  
  
  
  
  Nationality
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events.
  Some definitions include:
  Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation.
  
  
  
  Italian
  
  
  
  Culture
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group.
  
  
  
  
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  Medium
  Oil on canvas
  
  
  Dimensions
  Unframed: 52 1/4 × 57 5/16 inches (132.7 × 145.6 cm)
  Framed: 64 × 68 1/4 × 5 inches (162.6 × 173.4 × 12.7 cm)
  
  
  Classification
  Paintings
  
  
  Department
  European Painting
  
  
  Credit
  Gift of Mrs. Edgar R. Thom
  
  
  
  Accession Number
  
  
  
  This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection.
  Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings.
  For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  56.43
  
  
  Copyright
  Public Domain
