Saint Paul
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 266911
Caption
This founding figure of the Christian Church is from a group of eight pictures now in the Iliffe Collection, that comes from a set of twelve pictures of God the Father and the Apostles, originally painted for the town palace of Count Cesare and Fra Giuseppe Merenda in Forlí. They were Batoni's most dedicated patrons, commissioning at least 32 paintings from him between about 1740 and 1750. St Paul holds the sword with which he was martyred by decapitation, and appears to address us, in token of his great powers as a preacher.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Saint Paul by Pompeo Girolamo Batoni (Lucca 1708 – Rome 1787), 1740-43. A three-quarter length, stands with right arm outstretched as he preaches, his head turned to his left and eyes down. With left arm holds book and sword against him. Brown hair and long beard, green tunic and red cloak. Moulded gilt frame. Part of set with NT/BAS/P/12-15,17,18,20.
Provenance
Commissioned by Count Cesare (1700-1754) and Fra Giuseppe (1687-1760) Merenda, for the picture-gallery of the Palazzo Merenda, Forlì, c.1740-43; there till 1945; Villa Merenda - Salecchi, nr. Forlì, till 1959, when sold (probably via M. & C. Sestieri, Rome) to the dealer Julius Weitzner, London; with P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London, 1959-60 [June 15 - July 16 1960 catalogue]; 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
Exhibition history
In Trust for the Nation, National Gallery, London, 1995 - 1996, no.54b
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. 82