The Madonna and Child in Glory

Artist Pompeo Batoni (Italian (Rome), 1708-1787)

Place of OriginRome, Italy

Dateabout 1747

DimensionsPainting (H x W): 46 1/2 × 24 in. (118.1 × 61 cm)
Frame (H x W x D): 55 1/8 × 32 1/4 × 3 in. (140 × 81.9 × 7.6 cm)

Mediumoil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1963.5

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 26, Rotunda

Label TextDisplaying Pompeo Batoni’s characteristic smooth finish and luminosity of color, Madonna and Child in Glory presents the Virgin Mary as Queen of Heaven encircled by music-making angels. The composition also draws on the pictorial tradition of the Immaculate Conception—the belief that Mary was born free of Original Sin. Based on a passage from the biblical book of Revelation, Batoni shows the Virgin “clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.” Gazing heavenward, she holds the Christ Child, who uses a long staff surmounted by a crucifix to vanquish Satan, represented in the form of a fire-breathing dragon. Held in check, Satan is forced to relinquish his clutch on the orb that represents the earthly realm.Published ReferencesCalzini, E., “La Gallerie Merenda in Forlì e le pitture del Batoni in essa contenute,” Arte e Storia, Vol. 15, 1896, p.130.

Casadei, Ettore, La città di Forlì e I suoi dintorni, Forlì, 1928, p. 382, repr. p. 381.

Marucci, L., “Pompeo Batoni a Forlì,” Emporium, XXII, April – June 1944, pp. 95, 98, n. 1 (no. 5).

“Treasures for Toledo,” Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, New Series, Vol. 7, No. 4, Winter 1964, repr. p. 94 (also published as handbook).

“Chronique des Arts,” Gazette des Beaux-arts, Vol. 65, No. 1153, February 1965, p. 87.

Watson, F.J.B., “Eighteenth-century painting and decorative arts,” Apollo, Vol. 86, no. 70, December 1967, p. 465.

Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri, Census of Pre-nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections, Cambridge, Mass., 1972, p. 20, 341.

Gorney, Michaelene, “Musical instruments: Strings,” Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, Vol. 20, no. 4, 1978, p. 96, reproduced fig. 8 and cover (col.det.).

Bowron, Edgar Peters, Pompeo Batoni (1708-87) and His British Patrons, London, 1982, p. 10, fig. 5.

Clark, Anthony M., Pompeo Batoni: A Complete Catalogue of His Works, New York, 1985, no. 112, p. 240, pl. 108; editor: Edgar Peters Bowron.

Quieto, Pierpaolo, Giovanni V di Portogallo e le sue committenze nella Roma del XVIII secolo, Bologna, 1988, pp. 101-102.

Hall, Nicholas H.J., ed., Colnaghi in America, New York, 1992, p. 133 [listed].

“Lebendiger Glaube und Mythologie / Living Faith and Mythology,” Triple Gallery Gazette, Vol. 3, no. 2, 1999, p. 3, repr. (col.).

Villis, Carl, "Bernardo Bellotto's seven large views of Rome, c. 1743," Burlington, vol. 142, no. 1163, Feb. 2000, p. 76, fig. 7, p. 79.

Bissell, R. Ward et al, Masters of Italian Baroque Painting: The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Detroit Institute of Arts, 2005, p. 29, 31, no. 8, fig. 2, p. 30.

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 196, repr. (col.).

Bowron, Edgar Peters, Pompeo Batoni: A Complete Catalogue of his Paintings, Vol. 1, Houston, Yale University Press in association with the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2016, pp. 121-122, repr. (col.) fig. 104, p. 121.

Exhibition HistoryToledo, The Toledo Museum of Art, Treasures for Toledo, 1964-65 (no catalogue).

New York, Colnaghi, Pompeo Batoni (1708-1787), 1982, pp. 4, 10, 23, 54, repr. fig. 5, p. 8.

Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art; Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, Art in Rome in the Eighteenth Century, 2000, no. 165, pp. 309-310, repr. (col.).

Houston, Museum of Fine Arts; London, The National Gallery, Pompeo Batoni: prince of painters in eighteenth-century Rome, 2007-2008, no. 22, p. 164, fig. 149, p. 165 (col.).