Pompeo Batoni : prince of painters in eighteenth-century Rome /

Though designed to accompany an exhibition held in Houston and then London, this handsome book is essentially a monograph on Pompeo Batoni (1708-87). It reproduces some 150 works in color, varying in scale. Batoni enjoyed considerable success from the early 1730s onward, painting mainly religious works, often referring to Raphael, and later Guido Reni, in a very polished and exact manner. This successful career was interrupted by the cancellation in 1756 of a vast composition, The Fall of Simon Magus, commissioned for Saint Peter's. By this time Batoni was turning to portraiture, producing a series of brilliant likenesses of British lords visiting Rome on the Grand Tour. These are justly celebrated and seem to represent liberation for the artist from the rigors of the grand manner. Batoni was able to design the pictures freely and brilliantly, exploiting a riot of fashionable clothing and graceful accessories. His portraits of women are less successful, and his state portraits understandably lack the brio of those of the English visitors. But for Batoni, his meticulously painted but sometimes a little overcrowded history paintings were the main business of his career, and they represent the high point of Roman painting in the 18th century. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students and faculty/researchers; general readers. G. Knox emeritus, University of British Columbia

Pompeo Batoni (1708-87), one of Rome's most celebrated painters, was during his lifetime and remains today best known for his portraits-namely, of English, Scottish, and Irish men and a few women visiting Rome on the Grand Tour (a typical trip for Britain's 18th-century upper classes). Published in association with the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, this catalog celebrates the tercentenary of Batoni's birth and accompanies an exhibition of his finest works, now showing at the National Gallery, London (through May 18, 2008). It contains more than 150 color illustrations representing paintings from private and public collections in the United States and Europe. Some of these works are newly discovered, while others have never before been shown. Authors Bowron, a curator, and Kerber, who completed his doctoral thesis on Batoni at the University of Munich, present these works alongside essays exploring Batoni's art, life, patrons, historiography, and critical reception, devoting one chapter to his drawings and working methods. Scholarly, thoroughly researched, and with many attractive color reproductions, the volume's specialized nature recommends it for academic libraries supporting art history programs and for museum libraries.-Sandra Rothenberg, Framingham State Coll. Lib., MA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.