It initially looked like a modest Old Master lot in the forthcoming sale of the Gerolamo Etro collection: a large eighteenth-century portrait of a man, attributed to an anonymous Central Italian master and estimated at €2,000–3,000. The auction house has since withdrawn the painting from the sale “for inspection”. Why? Condition is one possibility, but at this estimate it is also a somewhat curious explanation. Another question presents itself: did the cataloguing process raise the possibility of a more significant attribution, perhaps even Pompeo Batoni?
An auction house withdrawing a €2,000-3,000 painting a few weeks before a sale need not mean anything dramatic. A consignor may have changed their mind, a provenance issue may have arisen, or a conservator may have identified something requiring further investigation. Even so, the wording attached to lot 64 at Il Ponte is unusually precise: “LOT WITHDRAWN FOR INSPECTION.”
The work is Portrait of a Gentleman Holding a Letter, an oil on canvas measuring 127 by 94.5 centimetres, included in a three-day sale beginning in Milan on 22 September. Il Ponte currently catalogues it simply as Central Italian Master, 18th Century. The estimate is €2,000-3,000. The catalogue also openly states that the painting has “defects and restorations”.[1]
That last point makes a purely condition-related explanation somewhat less obvious. Defects and restorations were evidently already known when the painting was catalogued and estimated. Nor is imperfect condition unusual for an anonymous Old Master at this price level. A later inspection could, of course, have revealed more serious issues, structural damage, extensive overpainting or even questions concerning age and materials, but withdrawing the lot altogether is still a fairly significant step.
None of this is evidence for a reattribution. It is, however, precisely the point at which a low-estimated lot becomes interesting.
A painting that does not quite fit its estimate
Even without a famous name attached to it, lot 64 appears more ambitious than its cataloguing might suggest. The unidentified man is shown seated three-quarter length in an elaborate chair, dressed in deep red velvet with extensive gold embroidery. Lace, wig, writing desk and document place him unmistakably within an official or aristocratic setting. The costume is not merely decorative: the painter has taken evident care to distinguish velvet, metallic embroidery, skin and lace.
The face is carefully modelled and relatively restrained against the almost ostentatious costume. The head also has the calm, slightly idealised presence frequently encountered in Roman portraiture of the middle and later eighteenth century. The hands are less convincing than the face and parts of the surface appear somewhat unsettled, although the painting’s restoration history must be kept in mind.
The question, then, is not whether €2,000–3,000 is “too little”. For an anonymous, restored eighteenth-century portrait, it can be an entirely reasonable estimate. More interesting is the discrepancy between that broad cataloguing and the ambition of the painting itself. This is a large, formal portrait of a man who, judging from his dress and the way he is presented, may have belonged to a high-ranking administrative, diplomatic or aristocratic circle. Stylistically, it seems more at home in the international portrait culture of Rome around 1760–1780 than in the category of an ordinary provincial portrait.
And that is where Pompeo Girolamo Batoni (1708–1787) enters the picture.
Why Batoni?
By the middle of the eighteenth century, Batoni had become the dominant international portrait painter in Rome. From the 1750s onwards he built a practice around aristocrats, diplomats and Grand Tour travellers. Among his strengths were precise physiognomy, controlled draughtsmanship and a virtuoso ability to differentiate fabrics and surfaces.
None of this establishes the authorship of the Il Ponte portrait. But the painting fits surprisingly comfortably within the same visual world. One of the most useful comparisons is Batoni’s Manuel de Roda of 1765 in the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. The Spanish diplomat and minister appears in a richly embroidered red costume with lace, surrounded by papers and writing implements.[3]
The similarity in scale and portrait type is even clearer in Batoni’s George Legge, Viscount Lewisham of 1778 in the Prado. That canvas measures 127 by 100 centimetres. Lot 64 at Il Ponte measures 127 by 94.5 centimetres: exactly the same height. Legge likewise sits against a predominantly dark background, dressed in red and presented beside a table; in his hands he holds a map of Italy.[4]
Batoni’s portrait of George Herbert, 2nd Earl of Powis, painted in Rome in 1776–77, also falls within almost the same format, at 134.6 by 96.5 centimetres. The National Trust records it as a Roman Grand Tour commission from a period in which Batoni was particularly sought after by British aristocrats.[5]
None of these parallels proves authorship. Red velvet, gold embroidery, a document and a dark background were not exclusive Batoni motifs. More significant is the overall type: scale, social presentation, palette, the contrast between elaborately rendered costume and a restrained background, and the concentrated treatment of the face all sit comfortably within the kind of international portraiture for which Batoni maintained a major practice in Rome.
That makes him a reasonable name to investigate. Not necessarily the right one.
The market makes further investigation logical
The original estimate makes the distinction important. A broadly catalogued “Central Italian Master” at €2,000–3,000 occupies an entirely different commercial category from a painting that can be associated, even cautiously, with Batoni.
A portrait from the studio of Pompeo Batoni was estimated at £6,000–8,000 by Sotheby’s in 2020.[6] In June 2025, a portrait of Emperor Francis I Stephen offered by Dorotheum as Circle of Pompeo Batoni realised €13,000 including buyer’s premium and VAT against an estimate of €10,000–20,000.[7] With fully accepted autograph portraits, the level shifts dramatically. Sotheby’s gave Portrait of the Rev. Thomas Kerrich an estimate of €100,000–150,000 in November 2025.[8]
Those figures help explain why a specialist would not leave a potential attribution issue unresolved until after the auction. The distinction between “Central Italian Master”, “circle of”, “studio of” and an accepted Batoni is not semantic; it fundamentally changes both the art-historical and commercial position of the painting.
An almost uncomfortably apt precedent
A portrait offered by Christie’s as Batoni in 2020 had been sold in 1963 as a work by Gilbert Stuart. When it reappeared at Sotheby’s in January 1985, it was attributed instead to Angelica Kauffmann. The provenance later published by Christie’s states explicitly that the work was “withdrawn following correct identification of the artist”. A few months later, on 3 April 1985, it was offered again, this time as Pompeo Batoni. The painting has since been included in the Batoni catalogues by Clark and Bowron.[9]
The precedent deserves attention because the mechanism so closely resembles the question now arising in Milan: an eighteenth-century portrait appears at auction under an alternative or generic attribution, is withdrawn before the sale, and may prove on closer examination to have a more significant authorship. That does not mean history is repeating itself at Il Ponte. But it does prevent the Batoni hypothesis from being dismissed as a random comparison with a more famous painter.
Batoni is not the only candidate
If one looks only at Batoni comparisons, it is easy to convince oneself. That is precisely where connoisseurship becomes dangerous. Rome in this period had several portraitists working for the same international clientele. Anton von Maron (1733–1808) is probably the most important alternative here. He settled in Rome in 1755, worked closely with Anton Raphael Mengs and, after Mengs left for Madrid in 1761, took over part of his portrait clientele.
Confusion with Batoni is also documented. In 2010 Dorotheum sold a portrait of a gentleman that had long been regarded as Batoni or from his circle. A specialist ultimately identified it as a work by Maron. It carried an estimate of €20,000–25,000 and realised €57,255 including buyer’s premium.[10]
The Il Ponte portrait therefore need not be a Batoni to prove considerably more interesting than its original cataloguing suggests. A convincing attribution to Maron or another important Roman portraitist would likewise amount to a fundamental change in status.
And yet it may simply be a condition issue
Il Ponte has published nothing to suggest that it is reconsidering the authorship of the painting. The only hard facts are that lot 64 has been withdrawn “for inspection” and that the painting has defects and restorations. A problem may have been discovered beneath an old restoration that is not visible in the catalogue photograph. Questions of provenance, ownership or dating likewise cannot be excluded.
But the sequence remains noteworthy. It suggests, at the very least, that a question arose after the initial cataloguing that the auction house considered significant enough to halt the sale. And this is precisely where the quality of the portrait matters. Its appeal does not depend solely on the possibility of attaching a famous name. The composition, scale and handling place it close to the international Roman portrait tradition in which Batoni was the leading figure.
The auction house describes Gerolamo Etro – A Love Affair as a selection of paintings, furniture and works of art assembled over more than fifty years.[2] It is a broad and highly personal collection rather than a narrowly defined Old Master collection in which every painting had necessarily been subjected to extensive scholarly study. That may be exactly the kind of environment in which an Old Master could remain for years under a generic attribution.
If Il Ponte eventually republishes the painting under a more specific name, Batoni, Maron, their circle or someone else, then that small catalogue change will have been the first visible sign that a painting worth only a few thousand euros had nevertheless proved worthy of further investigation.
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Notes and sources
[1] Il Ponte Casa d’Aste, Gerolamo Etro – A Love Affair, Auction 794, Milan, 22 September 2026, lot 64, Central Italian Master, 18th Century, Portrait of a Gentleman Holding a Letter, oil on canvas, 127 × 94.5 cm, estimate €2,000–3,000; catalogue entries “With defects and restorations” and “LOT WITHDRAWN FOR INSPECTION”.
[2] Il Ponte Casa d’Aste, Gerolamo Etro – A Love Affair: Creativity Through the Memory of Objects, 2 September 2026; auction 22–24 September 2026.
[3] Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, inv. 0709, Pompeo Girolamo Batoni, Manuel de Roda, 1765, oil on canvas, 99 × 75 cm.
[4] Museo Nacional del Prado, inv. P000048, Pompeo Batoni, George Legge, Viscount Lewisham, 1778, oil on canvas, 127 × 100 cm.
[5] National Trust Collections, NT 1181071, Pompeo Girolamo Batoni, George Edward Henry Arthur Herbert, 2nd Earl of Powis, 1776–77, oil on canvas, 134.6 × 96.5 cm.
[6] Sotheby’s, The Rafael Valls Sale Online, 8 April 2020, lot 57, Studio of Pompeo Girolamo Batoni, A portrait of a gentleman, estimate £6,000–8,000.
[7] Dorotheum, Imperial Court Memorabilia & Historical Objects, Vienna, 12 June 2025, lot 20, Circle of Pompeo Batoni, Emperor Franz I Stephan, estimate €10,000–20,000; realised price €13,000 including premium.
[8] Sotheby’s, The Manny Davidson Collection: A Life in Treasures and Benevolence, 5 November 2025, lot 75, Pompeo Batoni, Portrait of the Rev. Thomas Kerrich (1748–1828), estimate €100,000–150,000.
[9] Christie’s, Old Master Paintings & Sculpture Online, 2020, Pompeo Batoni, Portrait of a gentleman, bust-length, in a plum coloured jacket and pink waistcoat.
[10] Dorotheum, Old Master Paintings, Vienna, 21 April 2010, lot 31, Anton von Maron, Portrait of a gentleman traditionally identified as Prince William Henry, Duke of Gloucester, estimate €20,000–25,000, realised price €57,255 including buyer’s premium.
