The Lottery in Piazza di Montecitorio

From 1743 the public lottery in Rome was drawn nine times a year, with the proceeds going to charity and the Church, and it kept running until 1870, the year papal rule over the city ended. Panini painted this view in 1743 or 1744. The stage is the balcony of the Palazzo di Montecitorio, now home to the Italian Chamber of Deputies. A man up there has just let the winning ticket go, and it flutters down towards the square. Below, Panini gathers a whole cross-section of Rome, ladies in wide silk skirts, market sellers, men studying their tickets. He also bent the view to fit in the Column of Marcus Aurelius, which really stands in the neighbouring square. The picture was painted for Cardinal Domenico Orsini, and it came to the National Gallery in 2006 in place of inheritance tax.