Batoni was the leading portrait painter of 18th- century Rome. He was born in Lucca, the son of a goldsmith, and his training probably took place there before he moved to Rome in 1727.
From about 1740 Batoni established himself as the principal portraitist in Rome of visitors from abroad, especially English aristocrats on the Grand Tour. Batoni's grand decorative schemes and altarpieces show the influence both of the antique and of Raphael, whose work he often copied.
His patrons on the Grand Tour included many Englishmen, such as Charles Compton, Earl of Northampton, whose portrait of 1758 is in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, and the unknown man in the 'Portrait of a Gentleman' in the Gallery Collection. Such patrons carried home with them imposing images of themselves pictured beside classical statues and often with Roman buildings shown in the background. Batoni was a major influence on Mengs.
Pompeo Girolamo Batoni
1708 - 1787
Paintings by Pompeo Girolamo Batoni
This is traditionally said to be a portrait of the Englishman John Scott, who bought the estate at Banks Fee, near Stow-on-the-Wold in Gloucestershire, in 1753. During the early 1770s – around the same time as this work was produced – Scott did travel to Rome, where the famous portraitist Batoni...
Not on display
This is Richard Milles of Nackington, a Member of Parliament for Canterbury from 1761 to 1780, who sat for this portrait when he was in Rome on his Grand Tour. He points to a map inscribed with ‘Grisons’, the name of a Swiss Canton that he probably visited on his way to Italy.The classical column...
Time, the winged figure holding an hourglass, orders his companion Old Age to disfigure the face of a young woman, the personification of Beauty. This interaction encourages us to consider the brevity of youth and the inevitable passing of time.Batoni often drew from a live model when preparing h...