Sunday, July 24, 2016

Aristocratic Males by Pompeo Batoni

Pompeo Batoni
Portrait of William Fermor
1758
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Pompeo Batoni (1708-1787) "was the most celebrated painter in Rome. For nearly fifty years he made portraits of Rome's visitors. He was equally gifted as a history painter, as well as being internationally known for his religious and mythological paintings."  So say curators at the Victoria & Albert Museum, who go on to explain that Batoni's core clientele consisted of a steady fruitful stream of rich Englishmen on the Grand Tour. But Batoni was by no means running a portrait factory. The more of his work that is bought into view (and there will be two more posts after this one) the plainer it is that he never repeated himself. Distinct and rounded personalities emerge from each of these seemingly similar representations.  

Pompeo Batoni
Portrait of Thomas Tayleur, 1st Marquess of Headfort
1782
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Pompeo Batoni
Portrait of Philip Metcalfe
mid-18th century
National Portrait Gallery, London

Pompeo Batoni
Portrait of Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guilford
ca. 1752-56
National Portrait Gallery, London

Pompeo Batoni
Portrait of Thomas Kerrich
mid-18th century
private collection

Pompeo Batoni
Portrait of a gentleman
1762
National Gallery of Art (U.S.)

Pompeo Batoni
Portrait of Joseph Henry of Straffan
ca. 1750-55
Walters Art Gallery

Pompeo Batoni
Portrait of Thomas Fortescu
1767
private collection

Pompeo Batoni
Portrait of Edward Howard
1766
Victoria & Albert Museum

Pompeo Batoni
Portrait of Emperor Joseph II with Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo of Tuscany
1769
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Pompeo Batoni
Portrait of John, 3rd Baron Monson of Burton
1774
private collection

Pompeo Batoni
Portrait of Francis Basset, 1st Baron Dunstanville
1778
Prado

Pompeo Batoni
Portrait of a young man
ca. 1760-65
Metropolitan Museum of Art
 
Pompeo Batoni
Portrait of Sir Wyndham Knatchbull-Wyndham
ca. 1758-59
Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Full-length Batoni portraits tended to be rather enormous. This feature no doubt nurtured the already-healthy egos of those who paid. The canvas reproduced immediately above is about eight feet tall.