Capriccio of Roman Ruins with a Statue of Silenus and Dionysus

The original of this oval hangs in Rome, at the Accademia di San Luca, the city's academy of artists. Panini painted it in 1749, the year he was made a Knight of the Golden Spur, a papal honour, and it is known as The Sermon of an Apostle. It reached the academy in 1753 in the bequest of the collector Fabio Rosa, together with its companion picture, The Archaeologist.

The Boston canvas repeats the composition at almost exactly the same size. On the left stand the columns of the Temple of Vespasian from the Roman Forum, in the middle is a single-arched gateway modelled on the Arch of Titus, and at the right a statue of Silenus, the old companion of the wine god, holds the infant Dionysus. The academy relates that group to an ancient sculpture in the Vatican collections. Beside it the apostle preaches to a small, mixed crowd. Who made the copy, and when, is not known. It came to the Museum of Fine Arts in 1948 with the bequest of the Boston collector John T. Spaulding.