Francesco Ferdinandi, better known as Imperiali, was born in Milan and trained under Carlo Vimercati, before spending time in Palermo (a period about which very little is known or documented). It is thought that he arrived in Rome around 1705 and it was there that he gained popularity among British artists visiting Rome, including Alexander Clerk, Allan Ramsay and William Mosman, to whom he became an artistic mentor. He was also Batoni's teacher and advisor (see lot 125). In 1964, Anthony Clark wrote an important article, shedding light on Imperiali's commissions and status as an artist, in which he described him as 'important in the transformation of the late Baroque into the neo-Classical.'¹  

^1. A. Clark, 'Imperiali', The Burlington Magazine, CVI, May 1964, pp. 226-33