''Pantheon, Rome'' is a color photograph taken by German photographer Thomas Struth, in 1990. It is part of the series ''Museum Photographs'' that he dedicated to museums and their visitors all over the world. It had a series of ten prints of large format, like most of his photographs.

History and description

Struth took aim at the visitors of the Pantheon, in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, capturing a group of them who were standing on the large floor, under the central dome. Unlike others of his photographs this one was carefully staged. The large scale photograph shows the immensity of the space where it was taken, and also its majesty and classical beauty. The human presence of the tourists there seems dwarfed but at the same time they play an essential role in it as spectators. Struth assumed in this photograph a dialogue between past and present, in a painterly quality that doesn't appear in other photographs of the same series, recalling in particular the work of

Giovanni Paolo Panini Giovanni Paolo, also known as Gian Paolo Panini or Pannini (17 June 1691 – 21 October 1765), was an Italian Baroque painter and architect who worked in Rome and is primarily known as one of the ''vedutisti'' ("view painters"). As a painter, Pani ...

, who depicted the Pantheon in the 18th century. Struth seems to have achieved in this case faithfully his purpose to "retrieve masterpieces from the fate of fame, to recover them from their status… to remind us that these were works which were created in a contemporary moment, by artists who had everyday lives."

Art market

Three prints of this photograph are amongst those that have reached the highest prices for the author in the art market. On 12 November 2007, a print sold at

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, and it has additional salerooms in New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Milan, Geneva, Shan ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

for $1.049.000. On 26 June 2013, another version, from 1992, sold for $1.253.208 at

Sotheby's Sotheby's ( ) is a British-founded multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine art, fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. Another version of the photograph reached $1.810.000 at

, on 12 May 2015, still the highest price for one of his works.

Public collections

There are prints of this photograph at the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

, in

, the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

, in

, and at the

Saint Louis Art Museum The Saint Louis Art Museum (SLAM) is an art museum located in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. With paintings, sculptures, cultural objects, and ancient masterpieces from around the world, its three-story building stands in Forest Park in ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pantheon, Rome 1990s photographs Color photographs Photographs by Thomas Struth Photographs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art Photographs in the Museum of Modern Art (New York City) Churches in art Rome in art