BATONI, Pompeo
(b. 1708, Lucca, d. 1787, Roma)

Portrait of John Staples

1773
Oil on canvas
Museo di Roma, Rome

In the oeuvre of Pompeo Batoni, Rococo was combined with the budding Neo-classicism. He won fame with his lyrical honeyed religious and mythological paintings, then became a favourite portrait painter of aristocrats passing through Rome during the Grand Tour, whom he often depicted surrounded with Roman antiquities and buildings.