Pompeo Batoni (1708-87), Diana and Cupid, 1761. © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (1982.438).

LONDON.- The National Gallery presents Pompeo Batoni (1708-1787), on view through 18 May 2008. In his day, Pompeo Batoni was the most celebrated painter in Rome. The American painter Benjamin West said, ‘When I went to Rome, the Italian artists of that day thought of nothing, looked at nothing, but the work of Pompeo Batoni’.

For nearly half a century, Batoni recorded international travellers' visits to Italy on the Grand Tour in portraits that remain among the most memorable artistic accomplishments of the period. Equally gifted as a history painter, his religious and mythological works were eagerly acquired by the greatest patrons and collectors in Britain and mainland Europe.

This exhibition, which marks the tercentenary of the painter’s birth, is the first comprehensive presentation of Batoni’s paintings in forty years. It provides a vivid appreciation of the artistic achievement of ‘Italy’s Last Old Master,’ through the finest examples available in the public and private collections of Europe and America.

Batoni’s status as Rome’s most sought-after painter for both portraits and history paintings is demonstrated by works never previously publicly exhibited, as well as newly discovered and recently restored works.

Pompeo Batoni (1708-87), Susannah and the Elders, 1751. Private collection. © courtesy the owner