Pompeo Batoni 1708-1787
The National Gallery, London

ARTISTS can dramatically go in and out of fashion. This is certainly the case with the Italian artist Pompeo Batoni, who was regarded as one of the leading portrait painters of the 18th century. Yet, since his death, his work has fallen out of favour. However, as this revelatory exhibition makes clear, he was a highly skilled and inventive artist, capturing likeness and mood with consummate skill.

For gentlemen taking the highly fashionable grand tour around the great cities and sights of Europe in the 18th century, a stop at Rome to have your portrait painted by Batoni was considered essential. The resulting images were brought back as proud evidence of the success of the tour.

Precociously talented, Batoni, working in his father’s goldsmith workshop at the age of 19, designed and decorated a gold chalice to be presented to Pope Benedict. Shortly after he left his hometown of Lucca to travel to Rome to present the chalice to the Pope. In the city Batoni began his career as a painter, developing a style distilled from the antique that was influenced by the works of Raphael, academic French painting and the teaching of his master Sebastiano Conga.

Once established, he carried out monumental church commissions, religious and mythological subjects. One such image depicts the figure of Prometheus creating man from clay with the goddess Minerva imbuing the statue with life, symbolised by a butterfly, as described by Ovid in the Metamorphoses. It is intriguing as both a visual representation of the origin of life and for the harmony of the composition.

But it was for his sharply observed portraits that Batoni was best know. Smoothly executed, often flattering, his subjects included popes and monarchs. The American painter Benjamin West said: “When I went to Rome, the Italian artists of that day thought of nothing, looked at nothing, but the work of Pompeo Batoni”. Subjects included a supremely confident David Garrick, the actor’s arm resting on an open book at a page of masks – a not so subtle reference to the art of make believe.

Most of the portraits were commissioned by wealthy aristocrats, often shown in full regalia, affirming their social status and self-esteem. John Kerr, third Duke of Roxburghe, is depicted in a magnificent, full-length portrait wearing velvet and ermine, surrounded by exquisite hangings and elaborate furniture, exuding a fashionable air of nonchalance.

He was particularly adept at highlighting the beauty of women, to whom he often gave elaborate hairstyles and whose idealised features were intended to suggest virtuous character. So popular was Batoni that he became the equivalent of today’s portrait photographers, with British visitors queuing to be seen.

His renown was recognised at home and abroad. He was appointed curator of the papal collections and was knighted by the pope. Powerful and intelligent, his house became a social, intellectual and artistic centre, with historians such as Winckelmann a regular visitor.

This exhibition offers a wide ranging appreciation of the artistic achievement of what is now regarded as “Italy’s Last Old Master”, a parade of the rich and powerful and well as dramatic religious, mythological and historical subjects. Batoni was not only a highly skilled painter but was able to bring his subjects to life, which, despite the grandiose style, evoke character as well as appearance.

Emmanuel Cooper

The exhibition continues until May 18