Pompeo Batoni Biography
Pompeo Girolamo Batoni (Lucca, 25 January 1708 – Rome, 4 February 1787) was an Italian painter. Son of the Lucca goldsmith Paolino Batoni, Pompeo moved to Rome in 1727. He first went through a period of training in the workshop of Francesco Ferdinandi, spent mostly copying the works of Raphael and Annibale Carracci. Only in the early 1930s did he begin to obtain prestigious commissions. The first patron was Forte Gabrielli, Count of Baccaresca, who commissioned him the famous Madonna enthroned with Saints and Blesseds of the Gabrielli family of Gubbio for the church of San Gregorio al Celio in Rome (1732 - 1733), a second version of which is today in Venice, at the Gallerie dell'Accademia. Other commissions followed, including an altarpiece for the church of Saints Celsus and Julian and the very prestigious Fall of Simon Magus for Saint Peter's Basilica in the Vatican (today in Santa Maria degli Angeli). The Ecstasy of Saint Catherine of Siena in the National Museum of Villa Guinigi in Lucca dates back to 1743. In these works and in the numerous allegorical and mythological paintings he produced, Batoni shows himself to be a composed artist already tending towards neoclassicism. His rivalry with Anton Raphael Mengs is remembered by contemporary sources. It was in these years that the artist specialized in portraits, a very profitable genre given the high number of foreign noblemen passing through Rome for the Grand Tour. Batoni won over thus his international fame as the best Italian painter, thanks above all to the clients who came from England and Ireland. Among his effigies are the Emperor of Austria Joseph II and Pope Pius VI. Cardinals Nicola Antonelli and Leonardo Antonelli The image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus painted by Pompeo Batoni in 1767 and found in the Church of the Gesù in Rome. We note a very singular and unique commission carried out for the Church of the Counts Antonelli in Brugnetto di Senigallia, where the artist portrays two ovals on slate, the only known example in the world of Batoni, the Princes of the Church: Cardinal "Uncle" (Nicola Antonelli 1761) and Cardinal "Nepote" [Leonardo Antonelli 1776] In Forlì, in the civic art gallery, there is the portrait of the soprano (castrato) and musician Giuseppe Santarelli. The National Gallery in London preserves four of his paintings: Time Ordering Old Age to Destroy Beauty (1746), a Portrait of John Scott by Banks Fee (1774), a Portrait of Richard Milles (1760s) and a Portrait by Humphry Morice (1761-62). In the church of the Convent of the Presentation at the Temple of Monte Argentario, the Madonna and Child holding the Sacred Heart and Saint Joseph in the background is preserved. In the Parish Church of Santa Maria Assunta in Palazzolo sull'Oglio is one of his paintings of the Last Supper.
