Capriccio of Roman Ruins with a Bas-Relief of a Charioteer

The man in white at the centre is the archaeologist who gave Panini's original its name. Panini painted that oval in Rome in 1749, and this canvas follows it closely. The archaeologist is explaining a carved relief to three listeners, and the relief shows a charioteer with his horses. Behind them stand the remains of a large Ionic temple.

In the Rome of those years, explaining ruins was a way to make a living. Antiquarians walked foreign visitors round the sites, read the inscriptions for them and helped them buy pieces of ancient marble to ship home. Panini made a learned man of this kind the centre of a picture.

His original has a partner of the same shape and size, an apostle preaching among ruins. A copy of that picture hangs in Boston too, and the two copies came to the museum together. The only photograph of this one that the museum has published is in black and white.