Portrait of Cardinal Carlo Rezzonico, a head sketch

Together with Pompeo Batoni, Anton von Maron was the most highly regarded portrait painter in eighteenth-century Rome, and he received numerous commissions from both church dignitaries and English aristocrats passing through on the Grand Tour. The sitter for the present head sketch, Carlo Cardinal Rezzonico (1724-1799) was the nephew of Pope Clement XIII, also called Carlo Rezzonico. He served as Camerlengo, or Chamberlain, of the Holy Roman Church. Swiftly executed yet with an unmistakable sensitivity for features and facial expression, this sketch is evidently a preparatory study for a larger, perhaps full-length portrait.