In 1754, King Louis XV of France sent Etienne-François, Comte de Stainville (later Duc de Choiseul) to Rome to secure a decision from Pope Benedict XIV, which would settle the question of jurisdiction between the French Roman Catholic Church, the heretical sect of Jansenists, and France's judicial tribunals. The result of Choiseul's embassy was an encyclical, or papal decree, of 1756 addressed to the French bishops. This scene combines both real and imaginary characters to dramatize an actual historical event. The enthroned pope is flanked by graceful female personifications of Religion and Divine Wisdom. Two cherubs on the left hold symbols of the papacy. Before a view of St. Peter's cathedral, St. Peter and St. Paul appear on a cloud below the Holy Ghost, who has inspired the pope. The portrait of Benedict XIV is intended as an accurate likeness of Batoni's great patron.

In his own lifetime Pompeo Batoni (1708-1787) was most famous for his religious and historical pictures, and when, as recently as 1967, his native city of Lucca honored him with a Memorial Exhibition,¹ the choice of paintings reflected this side of his reputation. (In 1961 The Minneapolis Institute of Arts acquired an exceptionally beautiful example of this type of Batoni, the Benedict XIV Presenting in 1756 the Encyclical "Ex omnibus" to the Comte de Choiseul of 1757 (figure 2)—briefly published in the Bulletin by Anthony M. Clark, who had just been appointed curator of paintings and sculpture at the Institute.)² But outside Italy, and in the common judgment of collectors today, Batoni is best known as one of the most attractive of European portrait painters of the eighteenth century; his very considerable personal fortune was largely made from the portraits in which he specialized (and which cost a good deal less that the religious pictures), of the wealthy British and German travelers who visited Rome on their "Grand Tour." He also painted Popes and Cardinals and a sprinkling of the Roman aristocracy, but his clients were, above all, the British.³ So high was his reputation among British travelers that one of them, Lady Anne Riggs Miller, in 1771 went so far as to say that he was "esteemed the best portrait painter in the world."⁴Anthony Clark devoted much of the last twenty years of his life to the study of Roman painting in the eighteenth century,⁵ and especially to the work of Pompeo Batoni; and it was from his estate sale that the Institute bought the portrait of John Woodyeare (figure 1),⁶ partially with funds given as a memorial to Mr. Clark and his service as Director of the Institute of Arts from 1963 to 1973. The painting is of quite exceptional interest, as it marks almost the beginning of Batoni's fame as the portraitist of traveling English gentlemen and "milordi."⁷The picture measures 38-1/2 by 28-1/4 inches (0.979 by 0.717m), the size traditionally known as "kit cat." The identity of painter and sitter and the date are established by inscriptions on the back,⁸ which are not, in their present form, contemporary, but whose factual content (viz., that the sitter if "John Woodyeare, Aet.22.1750" and that it was painted at Rome by Batoni) is perfectly acceptable, since we know from other sources that John Woodyeare was in fact twenty-two in 1750 and was in Rome that year.Not much is known about the sitter.⁹ He was baptized 27 February 1727 or 1728 and was the only surviving son of William Woodyeare (1690-1748), of Crockhill, in the parish of Conisbrough in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The founder of the family had been his grandfather, George (1656-1710), who had at one time been secretary to Sir William Temple. Crookhill House is described by Pevsner as "a plain Georgian house with seven bays and two stories."¹⁰ It was probably built by John's father. John matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1748, and both his parents died in the same year, so that, when he set out on his grand tour in 1750, he was in full possession of the family fortunes. He married in 1761 Frances Turbutt and died without male issue in 1812, leaving four daughters. There is little further evidence of his presence in Rome, at any rate in 1751.In a Roman notebook and sketchbook of (Sir) Joshua Reynolds (now in the British Museum) is a list of "caricatures which I painted in Rome 1751," and of one of these the names of the sitters are given as Mr. Cook, Mr. Woodyer, Mr. Turner, Mr. Drake.¹¹ This caricature group survives today in the Rhode Island School of Design at Providence (figure 3),¹² and we know a little more about it from a note due to John Woodyeare's grandson who says it contains "portraits of my grandfather, John Woodyeare of Crookhill, and of his tutor, the Rev. Mr. Drake, together with Sir Charles Turner, Bart., and Mr. Cooke of Bedford Square, London. The picture was painted in 1751, and was brought from Rome by Mr. Woodyeare, in whose family it has remained ever since."¹³John Woodyeare was evidently a good-natured man to have bought this picture in which he appears as the cretinous and unmusical character seated lower left while his tutor (and first cousin) Dr. William Drake (1723-1801),¹⁴ who was only four years older than himself, appears playing the flute behind him. Of Mr. Cooke, who plays the cello, I know nothing. Mr. Turner (1726-1783) was another Yorkshireman, who was created Sir Charles Turner, Bart. of Kirkleatham in 1782, and was later described as "one of the most eccentric men who ever sat in Parliament." He is holding his ears in anguish. The somewhat frivolous spirit which prevails in this scene may have some bearing on the spirit in which the Batoni portrait was commissioned. Woodyeare seems, however, not to have been wholly insensitive to the art of painting, if he is (as Mr. Brinsley Ford has suggested to me) the "Mr. Woodicar" who in 1751 commissioned from Vernet (who could never spell English names) six pictures, each three feet by four feet, due to be finished in March 1752.¹⁵In the Batoni portrait there is no doubt that John Woodyeare is shown wearing some sort of hussar costume. It has been stated that this was the uniform of the Kings Own Third Hussars;¹⁶ unfortunately, this is nonsense.¹⁷ John Woodyeare held no commission of any sort in the British army, and the 3rd Light Dragoons did not become the 3rd Hussars until 1861. In fact, there were no hussar regiments in the British army until 1805, and the dress of certain light dragoon regiments did not begin to move in the direction of hussars until the time of the American War of Independence. John Woodyeare's costume must be considered as deliberate fancy dress; certain other portraits of Englishmen in hussar uniform are known which suggest that this may have been an admitted convention,¹⁸ perhaps for fancy dress balls, like the "Van Dyck dress" or "Rubens' wife" conventions which were not uncommon in the 1740s in England. Consideration of this and the frivolous mood of Reynolds' caricature suggests that this Batoni portrait may have been commissioned in a spirit of fun.¹⁹ As this is nearly the earliest in the long series of Batoni portraits of British sitters,²⁰ it is worth speculating on the spirit in which they were commissioned. I fancy that this spirit was quite different in 1750 from what it was to become after about 1760.In 1750—apart from Hogarth, whose clientele did not include moneyed persons who made the Grand Tour, and who was busy with other things than portraits from about 1745 to 1755—the two fashionable portrait painters in London were Hudson and Ramsay. Both of these had, in the main, a very limited variety of conventional poses, and Hudson's charge for a half length was twenty five guineas.²¹ Enterprising young Englishmen traveling abroad had, for some years, liked to commission something entirely different, and a convention grew up that one did this in Rome. In the 1720s a number were painted in Rome by Francesco Trevisani:²² in the 1730s Antonio David, Domenico Dupra (especially for those with Jacobite notions), and Agostino Masucci were employed in the spirit of this convention to paint portraits. In the later 1740s Rafael Mengs had become a possible candidate, but he was back in Dresden in 1750 and did not return to Rome until 1752. It was during this absence of Mengs from 1750 to 1752 that Batoni emerged as the favored portraitist for the traveling English. From 1753 onwards, whenever he was in Rome, Mengs and Batoni were well-matched rivals in this profitable field.²³ In competition with Mengs, Batoni's portraits, from 1754 onwards, were to become more serious and less light-hearted.The traveling English in Rome rather kept to themselves. Their contacts with the local native painters tended to be made through the agency of locally resident antiquarian "guides"—several of whom were of British origin. Batoni as a young man had already, in this capacity, been in contact with British collectors as early as 1730 since he proved to be by far the most accomplished draughtsman after classical sculptors, of which the traveling British wanted records.²⁴ And Batoni, as late as 1750, charged only thirty scudi (the equivalent of about £7.50) for a half length portrait,²⁵ which was about one third of the price Hudson was charging in London: there was clearly a great temptation for the British traveler to have his portrait painted at Rome, especially since it would certainly be as good a likeness, rather better drawn, and more lively than a Hudson.Batoni first painted a portrait of a British traveler in 1744—the Irishman Joseph Leeson, later 1st Earl of Milltown. The next portrait that we know is that of John Woodyeare of 1750; then, in 1751, comes that of the younger Joseph Leeson, later 2nd Earl of Milltown. In 1751/51 he painted a set of at least nine portraits (now at Uppark) of members of the Fetherstonhaugh family and their friends which have a light-hearted and somewhat jokey quality, clearly something demanded by the sitters, which is somewhat reminiscent of the spirit in which John Woodyeare is shown as a Hungarian hussar. There is some uncertainty about the identities of some of the sitters in the portraits at Uppark, but three of the ladies are shown severally as Diana, Pomona, and Flora; three of the men are shown with hunting spears (two of these with a dead boar); two other men have wreaths and prominently display swags of corn; and the clergyman of the family is shown as Apollo with a lyre and with a bow and quiver hung on a tree. There is a suggestion in the whole series of a fancy-dress picnic, and I suspect the same spirit in the portrait of John Woodyeare. By 1754 Batoni's British portraits became serious and straightforward, in competition with those of Mengs.This jokey period of Batoni happened to coincide with the years (April 1750 to April 1752) when the young Joshua Reynolds was in Rome. Reynolds was in touch with some of Batoni's sitters and would certainly have seen their Batoni portraits, so that when he set himself up in London in 1753, a knowledge of what Batoni was doing in Rome played some part in the elaboration of the new style of portrait Reynolds was to make fashionable. Consequently, Batoni and Mengs at Rome had, after 1760, much more serious competition from London portrait painters than they had had in 1750, and this was to have its effect on the character of their own British commissions.Also from Tony Clark's collection, by bequest, is Reynolds portrait of Sir James Gray (figure 4),²⁶ of which only the head is acceptable as by Reynolds himself. Since the picture certainly came from Reynold's studio, we can assume that it must have been commissioned from him, but no first payment or sittings are recorded in the surviving ledger and sitter books.²⁷ The view of the Escorial in the background (by a not too competent assistant) establishes that the sitter was Sir James Gray, Bart. (about 1708-1773) and that it cannot have been painted before the time when he was Ambassador at Madrid, 1767-1769. The sitter-books for 1774 and 1775 are missing, and I would guess that this may have been a posthumous commission, possibly to have been painted from a miniature (which would explain why Reynolds took rather little trouble with the picture). The most likely person to have commissioned it was the sitter's mother—who was also his executor—for Sir James never married and left only two illegitimate children. She died, at a great age, in 1781, which could explain why the picture was never finished.In treatment and interpretation of character the painting of Gray is curiously similar to the Batoni portrait of 1774 of Mr. Scott Banksfee (National Gallery, London), a similarity which shows how Batoni himself had learned to modify his style for English sitters so as to compete with the by that time much more up-to-date portraits which could be commissioned at home in England.Sir Ellis Waterhouse has been a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, Director of the National Galleries of Scotland, Barber Professor of Fine Arts and Director of the Barber Institute at the University of Birmingham, and Director of Studies at the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. He is author of the distinguished volumes Roman Baroque Painting, British Painting 1530-1790, and Italian Baroque Painting, as well as books on Gainsborough and Reynolds.Endnotes

1. Isbella Balli Barsali, ed., Mostra di Pompeo Batoni (Lucca, 1967), an exhibition catalogue which also contains introductory essays by A. M. Clark, A. Marabottini, and Francis Haskell.
2. The Minneapolis Institute of Arts Bulletin 51 (September 1962): 91. The William Hood Dunwoody Fund (61.62).
3. See especially the introductory essay "Pompeo Batoni e gli Inglesi" by Francis Haskell in the 1967 exhibition catalogue-Barsali, ed., Mostra.
4. Quoted by Anthony Clark in the introduction to Barsali, ed., Mostra, p. 23.
5. The extensive material that he collected, and notably that on Batoni, is being prepared for publication by Dr. E. Peters Brown of the Nelson-Atkins Gallery, Kansas City.
6. Christie's, London, 6 July 1978 (lot 4).
7. The portrait had remained at Crookhill until the present century. At John Woodyeare's death, Crookhill passed to his third daughter, Frances, whose husband, Fountain John Elwin, pursuant to a covenant in his marriage settlement, took the additional name of Woodyeare in 1812. His son, the Rev. John Fountain Woodyeare (born 1809) was the last direct descendant. He died between 1874 and 1885, and the pictures, other than family portraits, from Crookhill, were sold at Christie's, London, by his executors 8 April 1921 (lots 8-14). The family portraits were eventually sold as "the Property of a Gentleman" (L.W. Blomefield) 13 February 1925 (lots 18-31), in which the Batoni was lot 20—bought Rothschild 17 guineas. This was Max Rothschild (nee Roldit) of the Sackville Gallery, London, who is given as the owner on Ernst Emmering, Pompeo Batoni, sein Leben und Werk (Darmstadt, 1932), no. 57. It is then said to have belonged to a member of the Lycett Green family. Anonymous sale, Christie's 24 June 1960 (lot 81)—bought in; resold, Sotheby's 7 December 1960 (lot 74)—bought Weitzner, from whom Tony Clark acquired it. Exhibited Painting in Italy in the Eighteenth Century, Chicago-Minneapolis-Toledo, 1970-1971 (71).Since the work was acquired by Minneapolis, the surface has been cleaned, and minor filling and inpainting was carried out before varnishing.
8. There are two "inscriptions": (i) on the reclining canvas, which may be presumed to be a copy of what was on the back of the original canvas: Sig. Pompeio Pinx / Rome 1750; (ii) a nineteenth-century label attached to the stretcher, which reads: John Woodyeare / Aet. 22. 1750 and Painted at Rome 1750 by Pompeio Bartolomeo [sic.].
9. There is a full pedigree of the family in Joseph Foster, Pedigrees of the Country Families of Yorkshire, vol. 2, The West Riding (1874).
10. (Sir) Nikolaus Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Yorkshire, The West Riding (1959), p. 192.
11. Printed in William Cotton, Sir Joshua Reynolds' Notes and Observations on Pictures. . . (1859), p. 8.
12. 23-1/2 x 18 in. Its history is: National Portraits exhibition, South Kensington 1867 (343) lent Rev. J. F. W. Woodyeare; his Exors sale 8 April 1921 (lot 13)-bt. in; anonymous (=L. W. Blomefield) sale 13 February 1925 (lot 27); Reynolds exhibition at 45 Park Lane, London 1937 (83) lent Julian Lousada; Mrs. M. R. Lousada sale 20 March 1953 (lot 40).
13. Quoted in William Cotton, Sir Joshua Reynolds and his Works (1856), p. 67.
14. Later Vicar of Isleworth and a well-known antiquarian and philologist. He was son of Francis Drake, F.S.A., the Author of Eboracum, and Margaret Woodyeare (1693-1728), John Woodyeare's aunt.
15. See Florence Ingersoll-Smouse, Joseph Vernet, Peintre de Marine, vol. 1 (1926), nos. 368-373. When the old masters from Crookhill were sold in 1921, these were not among them. They may have passed to one or another of the two elder daughters of John Woodyeare.
16. Painting in Italy in the Eighteenth Century (Chicago-Minneapolis-Toledo, 1970/1971), p. 174—an exhibition at which the picture was lent (anonymously) by A. M. Clark; and in Christie's 1978 sales catalogue.
17. I am greatly indebted to Mrs. D. B. Willcox, Keeper of the Department of Uniform in the National Army Museum, London, for assuring me that there is no trace of John Woodyeare in any Army List between 1740 and 1800, and for the information about English hussar regiments and uniforms. She confirms that the uniform in the Woodyeare portrait is of a continental type and cannot relate to any British regiment.
18. E.g., Shackleton's portrait of William Windham (perhaps from the early 1740s) at Felbrigg (National Trust; reproduced in R.W. Ketton-Cremer, The Early Life. . . of William Windham [1930], p. 36; a repetition, perhaps of a different sitter, is in the Beaverbrook Museum at Fredericton, N.B.
19. An idea that it might have been connected with the Roman Carnival is negated by the fact that, in 1750, owing to the Jubilee Year, Carnival was hardly celebrated in Rome (Filippo Clementi, Il Carnivale Romano, vol. 2 [1938]), pp. 90-91.
20. The fullest list is still that given by John Steegman in Burlington Magazine, vol. 88 (March 1947): 55-63.
21. Account book of Jacob Bouverie, Viscount Folkestone.
22. A list in Frank R. DiFederico, Francesco Trevisani (Washington, D.C., 1977), pp. 73 ff.
23. For Meng's portraits of British sitters, see Francis Russell in National Trust Studies 1979 (1978), pp. 9-19.
24. Hugh Macandrew in Master Drawings 16, (no. 2): 131-150.
25. Barsali, ed., Mostra, p. 48.
26. 50-1/2 x 42-3/4 in. Still in Reynolds' studio at the time of his death; in the sale by Greenwood 15 April 1796 (lot 43)—as "Sir Henry corrected in ink to James Gray"—bought in, 8 guineas; Lady Thomond (Reynolds' niece and heiress) sale 18 May 1821 (lot 25)—as "Nobleman with distant view of the Excorial"—bought Robertson 11.0.6. Wrexham exhibition, 1876 (350) lent Sameul Boxill Robertson. Anonymous (= Andrew Robinson decd.) sale 18 June 1881 (lot 51) bought in. Blakeslee sale, New York, 11 April 1902 (lot 156). Lent to Philadelphia Museum of Art 1950 by Mr. and Mrs. Arthur E. Pew, Jr. Anonymous sale, Parke-Bernet, New York, 1 April 1966 (lot 70). Bought by Anthony M. Clark at anonymous sale at Central Picture Galleries, New York, 3 April 1967.
27. There is a great deal of confusion over Grey and Gray sittings recorded in existing sitter books, but, as these are all from the 1750s, they can have nothing to do with the Minneapolis picture.

Referenced Works of Art

1. Pompeo Batoni
   Italian, 1708-1787
   Portrait of John Woodyeare, 1750
   Oil on canvas, 38-1/2 x 28-1/4
   The John R. Van Derlip Fund and Funds
   Given in Memory of Anthony M. Clark
   Director of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts
   1963-1973, 78.24
2. Pompeo Batoni
   Benedict XIV Presenting in 1756 the Encyclical Ex Omnibus to the Comte de Choiseul, 1757
   Oil on linen, 50-3/4 x 70-5/8
   The William Hood Dunwoody Fund, 61.62
3. Sir Joshua Reynolds
   British, 1723-1792
   A Caricature Group
   Oil on canvas, 24-3/4 x 19
   Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design
   Gift of Mrs. Murray S. Danforth
4. Sir Joshua Reynolds
   Sir James Gray
   Oil on canvas, 50-1/2 x 42-3/4
   Bequest of Anthony Morris Clark, 81.47

This rather large canvas¹ is a capital work of the leader of the mid-eighteenth-century Roman school, Pompeo Girolamo Batoni (1708-1787). An actual historical scene, Pope Benedict XIV presenting to the Duke de Choiseul the Encyclical Ex Omnibus, is shown with the appropriate religious figures.Etienne-François Stainville, Count and later Duke de Choiseul, was sent as ambassador to Rome by Louis XV at the end of 1754 to gain a papal decision which would alleviate the religious troubles in France between the Gallican church, the schismatic Jansenists, and the popular Parliament against the Church and the weak royal opposition were in a real sense the first act of the later French Revolution. An Encyclical, or letter, addressed to the French bishops was the result of Choiseul's embassy on October 16, 1756.The elderly Benedict XIV, perhaps the most interesting and surely the most sympathetic of the eighteenth-century popes, is represented in the painting as presenting to Choiseul, whose hat is on the floor because he has just kissed the Pope's toe, the Encyclical from the throne of St. Peter. Around the Pope on each side stand graceful personifications of Religion and Faith. Before an actual view of St. Peter's, Saint Peter and Saint Paul, protectors of Rome, appear on a cloud below the Holy Ghost, which is shown inspiring the Pope. Putti at left hold the Sanctuary and Triple Tiara. The painting is initialed and dated 1757 by the artist and was either the Pope's gift to Choiseul when he took his farewell in March of that year or a memorial to one of the great moments of Benedict's reign. A few years later Choiseul was the French Foreign Minister and is best remembered for having arranged the marriage of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.Until its reappearance in the collection of Dr. Gustav Fall in Vienna,² the picture's history is obscure. A sketch for it and another for a companion allegory of the Venetian settlement of 1753 were in the collection of Prince Orsini in Rome until its sale in 1896. Several drawings for various details exist in the museum of Besançon and in a local private collection. Batoni did a considerable number of other commissions for Benedict XIV including a portrait of 1740.Batoni's superb draftsmanship and immaculate and graceful technique, and the magnificence of the scene—the Pope in full vestments, the ambassador in gold and blue court dress (with scarlet heels to his shoes)—make it necessary to consider this painting one of the great images of the eighteenth century. It is a purchase from the Dunwoody Fund, as were our Rembrandt, El Greco, Poussin and a majority of our best pictures.Endnotes

1. Ex colls.: Benedict XIV; Dr. Gustav Fall, Vienna, and his heirs, Washington, D.C.
2. Published and illustrated by E. Schleffran, Belvedere, x, 1931, p. 94s. See also Ernst Emmerling, Pompeo Batoni, Darmstadt, 1932, p. 130, no. 178.

Referenced Work of Art

1. Pompeo Girolamo Batoni, Roman, 1708-1787. Pope Benedict XIV Presenting the Encyclical Ex Omnibus to the Duke de Choiseul, 1757. Oil on canvas, 50 3/4” x 70 3/4”. The William Hood Dunwoody Fund, 1961, 61.62.