Pompeo Batoni

Pompeo Batoni was the leading portrait painter in eighteenth-century Rome and the favourite of British Grand Tour travellers. His portraits show wealthy young men posed among classical ruins and sculpture, and they are elegant and polished.

Born in Lucca, he trained in Rome and set up his studio there. He painted over two hundred portraits of British visitors, as well as altarpieces and mythological pictures. His Fall of Simon Magus is in St Peter’s, and his Achilles at the Court of Lycomedes is in the Uffizi.

His works are in many museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Look at his portraits for the fine fabrics, the smooth skin and the classical props that suggest the sitter’s education.