Help! DO YOU KNOW THIS PAINTING?

Question

This painting looked as if it was painted between the 16-1700's. It is a painting inside a huge, beautiful building, where the people are fairly smaller inside this place. There are portraits of people all over the walls of this building, and some of the characters in this painting are going through these portraits. Does this ring a bell for anyone?

Answer 1

I remember seeing a painting that matches your description in the Mauritshuis in The Hague, it is believed to be painted in 1630. I have added a link. Could this be it?

The painter is Willem van Haecht. It features an imaginary art collection. Imaginary, though all the works are real, they never where in one place together. In fact many can still be seen in museums all over the world. You can click on the picture and if you wait a while a magnifying glass appears that you use to go over the painting with.

I hope this is the one you are looking for.

Answer 2

This sounds very much like the following work;

Modern Rome, 1757
Giovanni Paolo Panini (Italian, Roman, 1691–1765)
Oil on canvas; 67 3/4 x 91 3/4 in. (172.1 x 233 cm)
Gwynne Andrews Fund, 1952 (52.63.2)


Here's a link so you can see it.

http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_Of_Art/viewOne.asp?dep=11&viewMode=1&item=52.63.2