Giovanni Paolo Pannini, known mainly as one…

Giovanni Paolo Pannini, known mainly as one of the vedutisti or (veduta or view painters"), had as a young man trained at Piacenza as a stage designer.

He had moved in 1711 to Rome, where he had studied drawing with Benedetto Luti and become famous as a decorator of palaces, including the Villa Patrizi (1718–1725) and the Palazzo de Carolis (1720).

As a painter, Pannini is best known for his vistas of Rome, in which city's antiquities he takes a particular interest.

He paints, for example, in 1720 a grand perspective of Saint Peter's Basilica.

Among his most famous works are the interior of the Pantheon, and his vedute — paintings of picture galleries containing views of Rome.

Pannini had in 1719 been admitted to the Congregazione dei Virtuosi al Pantheon.