Anton Raphael Mengs

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Anton Raphael Mengs (12 March 1728<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> – 29 June 1779) was a German Neoclassical painter.

Early life

File:Mengs, Selbstbildnis im roten Mantel.jpg
Self-portrait, 1744

Mengs was born on 12 March 1728, at Ústí nad Labem in the Kingdom of Bohemia, the son of Ismael Mengs, a Danish-born painter who eventually established himself at Dresden, where the court of Saxon-Polish electors and kings was. His older sister, Therese Concordia Maron, was also a painter, as was his younger sister, Julia.<ref>Jeffares, Neil. "Mengs, Julia Charlotte", Dictionary of pastellists before 1800, July 30, 2020</ref>

His and Therese's births in Bohemia were mere coincidence. Their mother was not their father's wife; Ismael carried on a years-long affair with the family's housekeeper, Charlotte Bormann. In an effort to conceal the births of two illegitimate children, Ismael took Charlotte, under the pretext of "vacations", to the nearest bigger town abroad, Ústí nad Labem (90 km upstream of the Elbe river). At least in Anton's case, Ismael Mengs took his baby and Charlotte back to Dresden a few weeks after the birth. There they lived for the next 13 years.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In 1741, Ismael moved his family from Dresden to Rome, where he copied in miniature some works of Raphael for the Elector of Saxony, which were intended for Dresden.<ref name=Williamson>Williamson, George. "Anthon Rafael Mengs." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 10. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 21 July 2023 Template:PD-notice</ref>

Adulthood

In 1749, Anton Raphael Mengs was appointed the first painter to Frederick Augustus, Elector of Saxony, but this did not prevent him from continuing to spend much of his time in Rome. There he married Margarita Guazzi, who had sat for him as a model in 1748. In 1749, Mengs accepted a commission from the Duke of Northumberland to make a copy, in oil on canvas, of Raphael's fresco The School of Athens for his London home. Executed in 1752–5, Mengs's painting is full-sized, but he adapted the composition to a rectangular format and added other figures. It is now in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

He converted to Catholicism, and in 1754 he became director of the Vatican painting school.Template:Sfn In 1757, Mengs painted a superb fresco on the dome of the church of Sant'Eusebio in Rome. His fresco painting Parnassus at Villa Albani gained him a reputation as a master painter.<ref name=Williamson/>

On two occasions he accepted invitations from Charles III of Spain to go to Madrid, first in 1761.<ref name=Williamson/> There he produced some of his best work, most notably the ceiling of the banqueting hall of the Royal Palace of Madrid, the subject of which was the Triumph of Trajan and the Temple of Glory. After the completion of this work in 1777, Mengs returned to Rome, where he died two years later, in poor circumstances, leaving twenty children, seven of whom were pensioned by the king of Spain.<ref name="EB1911">{{#if: | 

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Mengs died in Rome in June 1779 and was buried there in the Church of Santi Michele e Magno.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Career

File:Anton Raphael Mengs - Self Portrait - Google Art Project.jpg
Self-portrait, 1774 (on display at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool)

His portraits and self-portraits show an attention to detail and insight often lost in his grander paintings.Template:Cn His closeness to Johann Joachim Winckelmann<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> has enhanced his historical importance. Mengs came to share Winckelmann's enthusiasm for classical antiquity, and worked to establish the dominance of Neoclassical painting over the then popular Rococo style. At the same time, however, the influence of the Roman Baroque remained strong in his work, particularly in his religious paintings. He would have fancied himself the first neoclassicist, while, in fact, he may be the last flicker of Baroque art. Rudolf Wittkower wrote: "In the last analysis, he is as much an end as a beginning".<ref>Wittkower, p 469</ref> Goethe regretted that "so much learning should have been allied to a total want of initiative and poverty of invention, and embodied with a strained and artificial mannerism."<ref>Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Winckelmann und sein Jahrhundert</ref>

File:Mengs grave Rome.jpg
Mengs' grave in Rome
File:Dolorosa (Museo Ibercaja Camón Aznar).jpg
Our Lady of Sorrows (1765–1769), Museo Camón Aznar

Mengs had a well-known rivalry with the contemporary Italian painter Pompeo Batoni. He was also a friend of Giacomo Casanova. Casanova provides accounts of his personality and contemporary reputation through anecdotes in his Histoire de ma vie. Among his pupils in Italy were Anton von Maron (Antonio Maron; (Vienna, 1731- Naples, 1761).<ref>Supplemento alla Serie dei trecento elogi e ritratti degli uomini i più illustri in Pittura, Scultura, e Architettura. by Pellegrino Antonio Orlandi, published by Stamperia Allegrini, Pisoni, e comp, Florence (1776); column 1368–1369.</ref> His pupils in Spain included Agustín Esteve, Francisco Bayeu and Mariano Salvador Maella.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Besides numerous paintings in Madrid, the Ascension and St Joseph at Dresden, Perseus and Andromeda at Saint Petersburg, and the ceiling of the Villa Albani are among his chief works.<ref name="EB1911"/> A Noli me tangere was commissioned as an altar-piece by All Souls College, Oxford, and is now held in the National Gallery, London.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Another altar-piece was installed in Magdalen College, Oxford.Template:Sfn

Theoretical writings

Mengs wrote about art in Spanish, Italian, and German. His friendship with Winckelmann notwithstanding, Mengs was little influenced by Winckelmann's ideas; the basis of his extensive writings on art is to be found in the traditional theories that go back to Bellori.<ref>Goldwater, Robert, and Treves, Marco, eds. Artists on Art, from the XIV to the XX Century. Rev. edn., New York: Pantheon Books, 1947, pp. 244-5.</ref> He reveals an eclectic theory of art that sees perfection as attainable through a well-balanced fusion of diverse excellences: Greek design combined with the expression of Raphael, the chiaroscuro of Correggio, and the colour of Titian.<ref name="EB1911"/>

Selected works

References

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Sources

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