Giovanni Panini
(1691 - 1765)

Giovanni Paolo Panini or Pannini was an Italian painter and architect who worked in Rome and is primarily known as one of the vedutisti ("view painters"). As a painter, Panini is best known for his vistas of Rome, in which he took a particular interest in the city's antiquities. Among his most famous works are his view of the interior of the Pantheon (on behalf of Francesco Algarotti), and his vedute—paintings of picture galleries containing views of Rome. Most of his works, especially those of ruins, have a fanciful and unreal embellishment characteristic of capriccio themes. In this they resemble the capricci of Marco Ricci. Panini also painted portraits, including one of Pope Benedict XIV.

 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Paolo_Panini

The abduction of Helen
Date unknown
Oil on canvas
Private collection 

(Sold by Sotheby’s in 2015)

https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2015/master-paintings-part-i-n09302/lot.95.html

 

Married to King Menelaus of Sparta, the demi-goddess Helen was the daughter of Zeus and Leda, and according to Greek mythology, the most beautiful woman in the world.  Panini here depicts the moment in which Helen is abducted by Paris, the episode that would trigger the Trojan War.