Marcantonio Sab[b]atini (1637–1724), of a noble family of Bologna, was an antiquary and papal curator to Pope Clement XI and art advisor to Charles VI, a central figure among the cognoscenti in Baroque Rome. Under his supervision the pope's nephew, Alessandro Albani, developed the taste for antiquities for which he is remembered;[1] it was Sabbatini who selected from Albani's collection the antique moss agate carved in high relief with a sleeping tiger that would make a suitable gift to Prince Eugene of Savoy.[2] Among carved gems the "Strozzi Medusa"[3] bearing a signature "Solon" passed through Sabatini's collection. Carved gems in his collection were included among those in Paolo Alessandro Maffei's Gemme antiche (Rome: Domenico de' Rossi), 1708; one of them, a head of Vespasian bears the added inscription LAUR. MED. of Lorenzo de' Medici,[4] which was a habit of Lorenzo's.[5]
A caricature by Pier Leone Ghezzi of Sabbatini and Baron Philipp von Stosch, another renowned antiquary, closely examining engraved gems, is conserved in the Ashmolean museum.[6] Sabbatini's portrait is in the library of the Università di Bologna.[7]