Marcantonio Sabatini

Marcantonio Sabatini, of a noble family of Bologna, was an antiquary and papal curator to Pope Clement XI and art advisor to Charles VI, [Holy Roman Emperor|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; 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.
Among carved gems the "Strozzi Medusa" 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, 1708; one of them, a head of Vespasian bears the added inscription LAUR. MED. of Lorenzo de' Medici, which was a habit of Lorenzo's.
A caricature by Pier [Leone Ghezzi] of Sabbatini and Philipp [von Stosch|Baron Philipp von Stosch], another renowned antiquary, closely examining engraved gems, is conserved in the Ashmolean Museum. Sabbatini's portrait is in the library of the Università di Bologna.