Carlos de Bourbon Visitando a Basílica de São Pedro

In 1746 the young King of Naples, Charles of Bourbon, made a state visit to Rome to see Pope Benedict XIV, a friend since the two crowns had come to terms a few years earlier. Charles ordered a pair of paintings to record the trip and gave the work to Giovanni Paolo Panini, the man who could paint the inside of St Peter's more accurately than anyone alive. Panini sets the royal party far down the nave, small figures nearly swallowed by the great piers and the gilded coffering overhead. You can pick out the king only by the little crowd gathered around him. Panini lavished as much care on the marble and the light of the vast interior as on the visit itself.