The Pantheon, Rome: interior. Etching by J.S. Müller, 1774, after G.B. Panini.

London : J. Boydell, 1774.

1 print : etching ; platemark 57 x 48.2 cm

The inside of the Pantheon at Rome, in the collection of the Right Hon.ble Lord James Cavendish. 4f 7i high, 4f 2i wide. Gio. Paolo Pannini, pinxit. J.S. Miller, sculpsit. Bears number: No. 5

John Ingamells, A dictionary of British and Irish travellers in Italy, 1701-1800 compiled from the Brinsley Ford archive, New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1997, pp. 190-191 (Lord James Cavendish)

Wellcome Collection 2921414i

The lettering mentions Lord James Cavendish as owner of the painting. Colonel Lord James Cavendish (1701-1741) was MP for Malton (though often overseas on military service), while Lord James Cavendish FRS (ca. 1707-1751) was MP for Derby. Both died long before the publication of the present etching. The former was in Rome on the Grand Tour with his younger brother Lord Charles Cavendish (both sons of the 2nd Duke of Devonshire) from February to May 1723 (Ingamells, loc. cit.). One of Panini's paintings of the Pantheon has been dated to ca. 1734 (National Gallery of Art, Washington DC), therefore the MP for Malton could have acquired one before his death in 1741. It is possible that the present print published by Boydell in 1774 is printed from a plate etched by Müller and published by Arthur Pond in the 1740s, as occurred with other Panini engravings published by Boydell with the same numbering system, though no such impression has been found