Antonio Joli (Italian, 1700-1777) “Figures Amongst Classical Ruins” Oil on canvas 15 ¼ x 30 ½ inches (38.7 x 77.5 cm) Antonio Joli or Ioli (1700 – 29 April 1777) was an Italian painter of vedute and capricci.  Born in Modena, he first was apprenticed to Rafaello Rinaldi.  He then studied in Rome under Giovanni Paolo Panini, and in the studios of the Galli da Bibbiena family of scene-painters. He became a painter of stage sets in Modena and Perugia.  In 1732 he moved to Venice, where he worked as stage-painter for opera productions at the Teatro di San Giovanni Grisostomo and the Teatro San Samuele of the Grimani family. In 1742 he went to Dresden, and then to London (1744–48) and Madrid (1750–54).