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Leonardo's FansPompeo Batoni
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De rigueur to complete the Grand Tour, wealthy travelers required a portrait of themselves from only the finest artists. In the 18th Century they had to find Pompeo Batoni, 'the best painter in Italy'. Royalty, Popes, Military heroes all clamored for a Batoni portrait. |
Hailing from Lucca Italy in Tuscany he was the son of a goldsmith. It was in his father's workshop that his drawing and engraving skills first brought attention his way. He studied art in Rome and began to earn public commissions for his skill painting mythological, religious and allegorical subjects. Batoni eventually earned his first papal commission.
Title: Diana and Cupid, 1761
Artist: Pompeo Batoni (Italian 1708-1787)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 49 x 68 in. (124.5 x 172.7 cm)
Permanent Collection & ©: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (1982.438)
Image Courtesy: The National Gallery, London
Batoni disillusion with these public commissions, was realized with the abysmal reception given to his most important piece of his career, an altarpiece for Saint Peter's Bascilia. It was widely criticized and within two years taken down.
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The artist turned his attention to Grand Tour portraiture. He painted at least 225 known sitters, many of whom were British. |
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William Legge, 2nd Earl of Dartmouth, secretary of state for the colonies, future prime ministers, Lord North and Augustus Henry Fitzroy, 3rd Duke of Grafton all sat for Batoni. Royalty favored the Italian artist. Edward Augustus, Duke of York, and his brother, Prince William Henry, Duke of Gloucester, were both Batoni patrons.
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The exhibition, first displayed at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), was developed by Edgar Peters Bowron, the Audrey Jones Beck Curator of European Art at the MFAH, and Peter Björn Kerber, University of Munich. It features many of Batoni´s major works and examines his career as Rome´s premier artist in the 18th century for portraits and history paintings. |
"Pompeo Batoni´s work was unequaled among his Roman contemporaries and his paintings have brilliantly withstood the test of time," said Peter C. Marzio, director of the MFAH.
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"Because Batoni was the key image maker for a generation of British citizens on the Grand Tour, the National Gallery is particularly delighted to collaborate with the Houston museum in the presentation of this exhibition," said Dawson Carr, curator of Spanish and later Italian paintings at the National Gallery, London. "We are grateful to its curator Peters Bowron, the leading scholar of Batoni´s art, for inviting our participation and for his exemplary work in creating this exhibition of the last of Italy's great Old Masters." |
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"The portraits Batoni made of international travelers remain among the most memorable artistic accomplishments of the period," Bowron said. "In them we see Batoni´s incredible talent for capturing physical features and his ability to project the character of his sitters through the manner in which he posed them, the details of their dress, and the antique references selected for the background. These works are as compelling now as they were then."
Pompeo Batoni (1708-1787)
The National Gallery, London
The National Gallery, London:
February 20 - May 18, 2008