Pompeo Batoni

Exhibition at the National Gallery of the works of Pompeo Batoni, in his day the most celebrated painter in Rome.

Now known for his portraits of British nobles on the Grand Tour the exhibition also looks at his allegorical and historical work.

The stars of the show however were the portraits. I particularly liked one of William Gordon, a man in complete Highland outfit with the Coliseum in the background and an unusual landscape portrait of Duchess Girolama Santacroce Conti incorporating a wonderful silver toilet set.

I found the allegorical pictures more difficult as we suffer from having distanced ourselves from many of the stories and ideals that they represent. I liked a Triumph of Venice a strange scene on the greatness of Venice superimposed on an almost Canneletto type scene of the Doges Palace and St Marks Square.

All in all not a great exhibition but well presented and fills a gap.

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Evening Standard

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