Saint Philip
Pompeo Girolamo Batoni (Lucca 1708 – Rome 1787)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1740 - 1743
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
73 x 60.5cm (28¾ x 23¾ in)
Order this imageCollection
Basildon Park, Berkshire
NT 266906
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Saint Philip by Pompeo Girolamo Batoni (Lucca 1708 – Rome 1787), 1740-43. A half length, with grey hair and beard, brown tunic and green cloak, turned half right, head raised and looking up to his left. In left hand holds rope which entwines with large cross held in right. He is said to have journeyed to Scythia preaching the gospel and to the city of Hierapolis, whe he banished, with the aid of the cross, a serpent or dragon, which was the object of local worship in the temple of Mars. Moulded gilt frame. Part of set.
Provenance
Commissioned by Count Cesare (1700-1754) and Fra Giuseppe (1687-1760) Merenda, for the picture-gallery of the Palazzo Merenda, Forlì, circa 1740-43 and thence by descent via Ludovico Merenda, Conte Fr. Angelo Marai, O P (1752 - 1820) etc to Conte Cesare Merenda Salecchi (1873 - 1918) and Conte Cesarmerandae Farneti Marenda Salecchi (b. Forli 1933); there till 1945; Villa Merenda - Salecchi, nr. Forlì, till 1958/9, when sold (probably via Marcello & Carlo Sestieri, Rome) to the dealer Julius H. Weitzner, London, 1959; P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London, 1959-60 [sold to Lord Iliffe, 13th Janury 1961]; by whom sold in 1960 to Lord & Lady Iliffe; by whom presented to the National Trust, together with the house and grounds of Basildon Park, and a substantial part of their collection of paintings, in 1979
Credit line
Basildon Park, The Iliffe Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
Pompeo Girolamo Batoni (Lucca 1708 – Rome 1787), publisher
References
Clark and Bowron 1985 Anthony M. Clark & Edgar Peters Bowron (ed.), Pompeo Batoni A Complete Catalogue of his Works with an Introductory Text, Oxford 1985, no. 84