Virgin and Child with the Infant St John the Baptist
by BATONI, Pompeo, Oil on canvas, 131 x 97 cm
The painting shows the influence of Raphael and Correggio, both of whom Batoni admired enormously. Correggio’s sensuality and sentimental religiosity obviously struck a chord with Batoni, and for many artists working in Rome in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Raphael embodied artistic perfection: as a young man Batoni drew almost daily at the Vatican Stanze and the Villa Farnesina.