Pompeo Batoni

Born: Lucca, Italy, 25 January 1708

Died: Rome, 4 October 1787

Nationality: Italian


Works by this Artist

Brothers Emperor Joseph II and Emperor Leopold II
Pompeo Batoni, 1769

Background

son of goldsmith

Studies

trained as metal smith with father; drawing at private academies in Rome

Career

1727 – moves to Rome; earns living drawing copies of ancient sculpture

-mainly a history painter until 1740s, when he begins making Grand Tour portraits of British aristocrats (more than 50 total)

Commissions from

Pope Benedict XIV, Friedrich II (the Great, King of Prussia),Catherine the Great (Empress of Russia), Maria Theresa (Empress of Austria)

Important Artworks

The Fall of Simon Magus, 1746-55 (Santa Maria degli Angeli, Rome)

Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester, 1774 (Holkham Hall, Norfolk)

Readings:

Bowron, Edgar Peters. Pompeo Batoni: Prince of Painters in Eighteenth-Century Rome. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007

Clark, Anthony M. Pompeo Batoni: a Complete Catalogue of his Works with an Introductory Text. New York: New York University Press, 1985

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