Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria
1771. Oil on canvas.Room 022
In portraits of female subjects, Anton Rafael Mengs displays a warm and gentle quality, more Rococo in tone than the slightly academic coldness marking his historical and mythological compositions. The eldest daughter of the Grand Dukes of Tuscany and a granddaughter of Charles III, the Archduchess María Teresa Habsburg-Lorena is shown here at full length, next to a caged parrot. Her dress, with its short train, is of cream-colored satin with pink bows and trimming on the tulle front panel of the bodice, and she wears a pink, bejeweled cap. Her earrings also are jeweled, and a string of pearls surrounds her neck. Behind her hangs a gold-braided curtain of green damask. The colorful rug completes the decorative effect of the setting. Mengs completed this while visiting Florence in 1771. The model was three and a half years old, but the serious pose of her figure and her sumptuous attire, together with the palatial surroundings in which she appears, cause her to seem older than her years (Text drawn from Luna Fernández, Juan J., The Majesty of Spain, Jackson, Mississippi, 2001, p. 71).
The Majesty of Spain. Royal Collections From the Museo del P, Jackson, Mississipi Commission For Internati, 2001, p.71
