Giovanni Paolo Pannini

In the 1700s, city vistas such as this one-known as vedute (views)-were much in demand as souvenirs of travel and symbols of their owners’ sophistication. The glories of ancient Rome were particularly desirable subjects for those who had taken an educational Grand Tour of Europe. The Colosseum, the largest of Rome’s imperial monuments, was still relatively uncompromised by the modern city that would later surround it. Pannini records the great stadium as an 18th- century tourist might have seen it, set in a bucolic landscape and populated by the occasional shepherd and his flock.