The Madonna and Child in Glory
Artist: Pompeo Batoni (Italian (Rome), 1708-1787)
Date: about 1747
Dimensions:
46 1/2 x 24 in. (118 x 61 cm)
Medium: oil on canvas
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number: 1963.5
Label Text:The son of a goldsmith, Batoni left his native city of Lucca in 1727 and moved to Rome. He developed a strongly classicizing style based on the achievements of the great Italian masters and excelled as both a history painter and as a portraitist. By the 1740s, Batoni gained an international reputation unsurpassed by his contemporaries.
The question of whether this picture is a private devotional image or a study for a larger, unknown or unexecuted work still remains open. However, the high degree of finish, as well as the existence of a more summary oil sketch of the same composition in the Princeton University Art Museum, suggests that the Toledo painting is a resolved, autonomous work of art.
This work was acquired by the important Roman collector Casare Merenda (1700–1754), who also provided the beautiful gilded frame.
The question of whether this picture is a private devotional image or a study for a larger, unknown or unexecuted work still remains open. However, the high degree of finish, as well as the existence of a more summary oil sketch of the same composition in the Princeton University Art Museum, suggests that the Toledo painting is a resolved, autonomous work of art.
This work was acquired by the important Roman collector Casare Merenda (1700–1754), who also provided the beautiful gilded frame.
On view
In Collection(s)