Pompeo Girolamo Batoni, 'Time orders Old Age to destroy Beauty', 1746
About the work
Overview
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 his paintings: perhaps the aged face of the balding and bearded Time, and the wrinkled complexion and leathery, tanned skin of Old Age were inspired by the models who sat to him. Equally, though, the classical art that surrounded Batoni in Rome was a major influence on his work: here, both Time and Beauty’s poses are based on classical statues. Time’s wings seem to emulate the soft texture of feathers as well as the hard stone of a sculpture.
This work and its companion piece An Allegory of Lasciviousness (State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg) were commissioned by Bartolomeo Talenti, one of several noblemen from Lucca who supported Batoni’s early career during the early 1740s.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- Time orders Old Age to destroy Beauty
- Artist
- Pompeo Girolamo Batoni
- Artist dates
- 1708 - 1787
- Date made
- 1746
- Medium and support
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 135.3 × 96.5 cm
- Inscription summary
- Signed; Dated and inscribed
- Acquisition credit
- Bought, 1961
- Inventory number
- NG6316
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
Provenance
Additional information
This painting is included in a list of works with incomplete provenance from 1933–1945; for more information see Whereabouts of paintings 1933–1945.
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Michael Levey, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Italian Schools’, London 1986; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Exhibition history
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2008Pompeo BatoniPalazzo Ducale (Lucca)6 December 2008 - 3 May 2009
Bibliography
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1952L. Cochetti, 'Pompeo Batoni ed il neoclassicismo a Roma', Commentari, III, 1952, pp. 274-90
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1959A.M. Clark, 'Some Early Subject Pictures by P.G. Batoni', The Burlington Magazine, CI/675, 1959, pp. 232-43
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1962The National Gallery, The National Gallery: January 1960 - May 1962, London 1962
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1963National Gallery, Acquisitions 1953-62, National Gallery Catalogues, London 1963
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1967Mostra di Pompeo Batoni, Lucca 1967
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1971M. Levey, The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Italian Schools, London 1971
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1985A.M. Clark, Pompeo Batoni: A Complete Catalogue of His Works with an Introductory Text, Oxford 1985
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1986Levey, Michael, National Gallery Catalogues: The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Italian Schools, London 1986
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1993C.M. Sicca et al. (eds), Pittura toscana e pittura europea nel secolo dei lumi: Atti del convegno Pisa, Domus galilaeana 3-4 dicembre 1990, Florence 1993
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1994G. Sestieri, Repertorio della pittura romana della fine del Seicento e del Settecento, Turin 1994
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2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
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2003L. Menegazzi, 'Il Tempo tarpa le ali a Cupido di Pompeo Girolamo Batoni', in I. Chiappini di Sorio (ed.), Venezia, le Marche e la civiltà adriatica: Per festeggiare i 90 anni di Pietro Zampetti, Gorizia 2003, pp. 510-3
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2007E.P. Bowron, Pompeo Batoni: Prince of Painters in Eighteenth-Century Rome (exh. cat. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 21 October 2007 - 27 January 2008; The National Gallery, London, 20 February - 18 May 2008), Houston 2007
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.
Images
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