Monday, July 25, 2016

Pompeo Batoni and the Representation of Women

Pompeo Batoni
Thetis entrusts young Achilles to Chiron the Centaur
1770
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

In the vast corpus of paintings by Pompeo Batoni (1708-1787) there are many portraits of identifiable men but relatively few portraits of individual women. The explanation for this fact goes back to social conventions of the 18th century when legions of wealthy young men were encouraged to travel on the Continent, encounter the great world, and have adventures  while their sisters were expected to remain uneventfully at home, preserving their reputations for innocence. Hence, far fewer young women of the portrait-subject classes ever reached Rome, and Batoni was seldom presented with the opportunity to paint them. The artist's female figures must be sought elsewhere. They flourish on other sorts of canvases – mythological, allegorical, and religious, as below.  

Pompeo Batoni
Time compels Old Age to destroy Beauty
ca. 1746
National Gallery, London

Pompeo Batoni
Head of a frightened girl
18th century
Morgan Library, New York

Pompeo Batoni
Portrait of Contessa Maria Benedetta di San Martino
1785
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Pompeo Batoni
Madonna annunciata
ca. 1741-42
Louvre

Pompeo Batoni
Venus and Cupid
18th century
private collection

Pompeo Batoni
Marriage of Cupid and Psyche
1756
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

Pompeo Batoni
Portrait of the Marchioness of Headfort and her daughter
1782
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Pompeo Batoni
Allegory of Art
1740
Stadtische Galerie, Frankfurt

Pompeo Batoni
Susanna and the Elders
1751
private collection

Pompeo Batoni
Portrait of a woman
1785
Yale Center for British Art

Pompeo Batoni
The Continence of Scipio
ca. 1771-72
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Pompeo Batoni
Dido and Aeneas
1747
location unknown

Pompeo Batoni
Allegory of Peace and War
1776
Art Institute of Chicago