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Lot Essay
This previously unpublished portrait of a lady as Cleopatra is a late work by the most celebrated portraitist working in Rome during the eighteenth century, Pompeo Batoni, who recorded the visits to Rome of international travellers on the Grand Tour in portraits that remain: ‘among the most memorable artistic accomplishments of the period’ (E.P. Bowron, ‘Pompeo Batoni’, in Grove Dictionary of Artists Online). Dating to the early 1780s, this portrait exemplifies the formal elegance and delicate palette of Batoni’s mature oeuvre and shows his penchant for depicting female sitters in allegorical or mythological guise, elevating the genre of portraiture to the more highly esteemed level of history painting.
The sitter was formally identified as Alexandra Enichovna Safonova (1745-1778), third wife of the Russian industrialist and art patron, Prince Nikita Akinfiyevich Demidov (1724-1789). However, both the date of the couple’s visit to Rome in 1773 and Alexandra’s death in 1778 make this unlikely. The sitter is portrayed as the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra, holding the large pearl earring and bowl of vinegar relating to one of the most notorious episodes from her life. As recounted by Pliny the Elder in his Natural Histories, Cleopatra made a wager with her lover, the Roman general Mark Antony, that she could spend ten million sesterces on a single entertainment during a banquet and proceeded to win the wager by dissolving a large pearl earring in a bowl of vinegar, which she then drank. This anecdote became a popular illustration of Cleopatra’s seductive wit and intelligence. Batoni depicted other female sitters in the guise of the Egyptian queen, including Countess Józefina Potocka (whereabouts unknown, engraving by Domenico Cunego) and in a Portrait of a lady, traditionally identified as Countess Maria Benedetta di San Martino in Madrid (Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza).
Batoni would certainly have been aware of earlier examples of women being presented in paintings as Cleopatra, holding a pearl above a cup, notably in a work by Carlo Maratta (1625-1713) now in the Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia in Rome (fig. 1), which appears to have informed Batoni’s treatment of the subject, albeit in reverse. Maratta employed his daughter as the model for this work, which was not intended as a true portrait, but rather to form part of a series of six famous women, each representing a specific virtue, with Cleopatra exemplifying beauty. As the eighteenth century progressed, the fashion for portraying women as Cleopatra in portraiture grew in popularity across Europe, and it was used to brilliant effect by Sir Joshua Reynold in a portrait of Kitty Fisher (London, Kenwood House, Iveagh Bequest).
The present portrait exists in another version (now in a private collection), which has been dated by Bowron to circa 1782-83 (Pompeo Batoni: A Complete Catalogue of his Paintings, New Haven and London, 2016, pp. 588-589, no. 460).
The attribution has been endorsed by Edgar Peters Bowron after first hand inspection of the painting.
The sitter was formally identified as Alexandra Enichovna Safonova (1745-1778), third wife of the Russian industrialist and art patron, Prince Nikita Akinfiyevich Demidov (1724-1789). However, both the date of the couple’s visit to Rome in 1773 and Alexandra’s death in 1778 make this unlikely. The sitter is portrayed as the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra, holding the large pearl earring and bowl of vinegar relating to one of the most notorious episodes from her life. As recounted by Pliny the Elder in his Natural Histories, Cleopatra made a wager with her lover, the Roman general Mark Antony, that she could spend ten million sesterces on a single entertainment during a banquet and proceeded to win the wager by dissolving a large pearl earring in a bowl of vinegar, which she then drank. This anecdote became a popular illustration of Cleopatra’s seductive wit and intelligence. Batoni depicted other female sitters in the guise of the Egyptian queen, including Countess Józefina Potocka (whereabouts unknown, engraving by Domenico Cunego) and in a Portrait of a lady, traditionally identified as Countess Maria Benedetta di San Martino in Madrid (Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza).
Batoni would certainly have been aware of earlier examples of women being presented in paintings as Cleopatra, holding a pearl above a cup, notably in a work by Carlo Maratta (1625-1713) now in the Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia in Rome (fig. 1), which appears to have informed Batoni’s treatment of the subject, albeit in reverse. Maratta employed his daughter as the model for this work, which was not intended as a true portrait, but rather to form part of a series of six famous women, each representing a specific virtue, with Cleopatra exemplifying beauty. As the eighteenth century progressed, the fashion for portraying women as Cleopatra in portraiture grew in popularity across Europe, and it was used to brilliant effect by Sir Joshua Reynold in a portrait of Kitty Fisher (London, Kenwood House, Iveagh Bequest).
The present portrait exists in another version (now in a private collection), which has been dated by Bowron to circa 1782-83 (Pompeo Batoni: A Complete Catalogue of his Paintings, New Haven and London, 2016, pp. 588-589, no. 460).
The attribution has been endorsed by Edgar Peters Bowron after first hand inspection of the painting.