Description
In addition to executing portraits of prominent travelers in Rome, Pompeo Batoni often painted important ambassadors and diplomats to the Vatican. The Count of Floridablanca, a brilliant lawyer and author of texts on jurisprudence, served as King Charles III of Spain’s ambassador to the Holy See between 1772 and 1776. He probably posed for Batoni in the months before he was recalled to Charles’s court. Here, the dignified Floridablanca, who wears the Spanish Order of Isabella the Catholic, appears to have been momentarily interrupted from reading a letter.
Provenance
Possibly Princess Giuliana Santacroce, Rome [acc. to Clark 1985]; Santacroce family, Rome by the early nineteenth century [the painting appears in an undated, early-nineteenth-century manuscript inventory, Quadri della Galleria del Principe D. Antonio Santacroce, no. 51, as Ritratto del marchese Florido Blanco del Battoni; the original inventory previously in the possession of the Rangoni family, copy in curatorial file]; by descent to Princess Luisa Pubblicola Santacroce, who married Marquess Aldobrandino Rangoni (1846–1928) in 1869 in Macerata, Marche, Italy; by descent to the Rangoni family, Macerata [seen by Carlo Sestieri in the villa of Forano near Macerata, no date provided, see letter from Sestieri, dated December 10, 1977, in curatorial file]. Roman art market, 1968-73 [acc. to Clark 1985]; Marcello and Carlo Sestieri, Rome, by late 1973 [see letter from Sestieri, December 1977, in curatorial file]. Heim Gallery, London, 1974; sold to the Art Institute, 1974.
Accession Number
47578
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
99.7 × 75 cm (39 1/4 × 29 5/8 in.)
Classification
oil on canvas
Credit Line
Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester Collection