Pompeo Batoni

Pompeo Batoni was born in Lucca in 1708, and trained as a goldsmith with his father Paolino. He moved permanently to Rome in 1727 and studied painting with Francesco Imperiale (1679-1740); perhaps more importantly, he made numerous drawings and copies after antique sculpture and the paintings of modern Italian masters (Raphael, the Carracci, etc.). He was elected to the Accademia di San Luca in 1741. By the 1750s Batoni had become "the" portrait painter in Rome: the sophisticated elegance of his likenesses, enveloped by settings evocative of classical Rome, assured the artist's popularity among foreign--especially English--sitters desiring a souvenir of their Italian journey. Batoni also painted a host of historical and mythological scenes, altarpieces, and smaller devotional pictures. He was married twice, to Caterina Setti (d. 1742) in 1729, and to Lucia Fattori in 1747, and had twelve children; three of his sons assisted in his workshop. From 1759 Batoni lived in a large house on the Via Bocca di Leone in Rome, which included a studio as well as exhibition rooms and an evening drawing academy. The artist died in Rome on 4 February 1787.