Pompeo Batoni (1708-1787) was the most celebrated painter in Rome in his day. For nearly half a century, he recorded the visits of international travellers on the Grand Tour, and these portraits remain among the most memorable artistic accomplishments of the period. His history, religious, and mythological paintings were also highly prized by great patrons and collectors in Britain and on the Continent. This book, published in celebration of the tercentenary of Batoni's birth, offers a vivid appreciation of his work. More than 150 full-colour illustrations represent the finest examples of his paintings from public and private collections in Europe and the United States. Some of these works are newly discovered and some have never before been on public display. A series of illuminating essays explores Batoni's art, his various patrons, his working methods and techniques, his final years, and his historiography and critical reception.

Edgar Peters Bowron is Audrey Jones Beck Curator of European Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and a specialist in eighteenth-century Italian art. Peter Bjorn Kerber completed his doctoral thesis on Pompeo Batoni at the University of Munich.