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Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
Pompeo Batoni

Portrait of the Countess Maria Benedetta di San Martino

1785
Oil on canvas.
99 x 74 cm
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
Inv. no.
32
(
1977.28
)
ROOM 18
Level 2
Permanent Collection
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 14 13 15 16 17 18 22 19 20 21 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 Recommended start of the visitClassical rooms
1 14th Century. Early Italian Painting 2 15th Century. German and Spanish Painting 3 15th Century. Early Netherlandish Painting 4 15th Century. Italian Painting 5 15th and 16th Centuries. Renaissance Portraiture 6 16th Century. Villahermosa Gallery 7 16th Century. Italian Painting 8 15th and 16th Centuries. German Painting 9 15th and 16th Centuries. German Painting 10 16th Century. Netherlandish Painting 11 Tiziano, Tintoretto, Bassano and  El Greco 12 17th Century. Caravaggio and Baroque Painting 13 17th Century. Italian, French and Spanish Painting 14 17th Century. Italian, French and Spanish Painting 15 17th Century. Italian, French and Spanish Painting 16 18th Century. Italian Painting 17 18th Century. Italian Painting 18 18th Century. Italian Painting 19 Classical rooms 20 Classical rooms 21 Classical rooms 22 18th Century. Italian Painting 23 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Landscape 24 18th Century. French and English Painting 25 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Scenes of Daily Life and Interiors 26 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Landscape 27 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Portrait 28 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Landscape 29 19th Century. European Painting. Goya and Romanticism  

Pompeo Batoni was the son of a goldsmith with whom he first learned to draw. He subsequently trained as a painter with two local artists: Domenico Brugieri and Giovan Domenico Lombarda, then moved to Rome at the age of nineteen to complete his studies. Batoni lived and worked in Rome for the rest of his life and became a celebrated portraitist. He frequently depicted British sitters on the Grand Tour, presenting them in an elegant fashion surrounded by classical ruins in works that not only offered a record of their travels but also reflected their artistic interests. Batoni also executed history paintings in addition to portraiture, a field in he was particularly well known and appreciated and to which he devoted most of his efforts in the 1750s. One of his first commissions in Rome was an altarpiece of the Virgin and Child with four Saints for the church of San Gregorio al Celio. Batoni made a profound study of the great 16th- and 17th-century masters such as Raphael, Guercino and Reni and their influence on his work is evident. He also made drawings of classical sculpture which he sold, and included depictions of sculptures and fragments of classical architecture in his paintings.

The present portrait is signed and dated 1785 and falls within the artist’s late period. The sitter’s identity is known from the inscription in italic script below the artist’s signature. The canvas, which was recorded in Rome in the possession of the Countess’ descendents, was later in the collection of the architect Andrea Busiri Vici, where it was to be found in 1964 when it was included in a monographic exhibition on Batoni held in Lucca. In 1973 it was in Munich and four years later entered the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection. It was displayed on the principal staircase of Daylesford House, the residence of the Baron and Baroness in the UK.

Batoni depicted the Countess seated in a dark interior. The only classical references are the objects such as the table with a red cushion on top and the tazza balanced on its near edge. The image is highly appealing due the contrasting colour range used for the Countess’ dress, which is painted in a lively blue with a delicate range of silver tones. The Countess is depicted with bright, lively eyes, a low-cut dress and an elaborate and sophisticated hairstyle. Her high, abundant hair is decorated with pearls, a blue ornament that matches her dress, and a small cluster of roses. The sitter’s pose, the setting and the hairstyle have been compared to those to be seen in another late portrait by Batoni of the Marchioness Barbara Durazzo Brignole of 1786.

Mar Borobia

18th Century18th Century - Italian paintingPaintingOilcanvas
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Portrait of the Countess Maria Benedetta di San Martino. Pompeo  Batoni
Portrait of the Countess Maria Benedetta di San Martino
Pompeo Batoni

©

Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

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Portrait of the Countess Maria Benedetta di San Martino. Pompeo  Batoni
Portrait of the Countess Maria Benedetta di San Martino
Pompeo Batoni

©

Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

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