Anton Raphael Mengs.
Mengs was born in Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic (previously known as Aussig, Kingdom of Bohemia), on March 12, 1728, into an artistic family. He was the son of Ismael Mengs, a painter. Mengs's elder sister, Therese Concordia Maron was also a painter, as well as a younger sister, Julia Charlotte Mengs.
Anton Mengs studied under the guidance of his father in Dresden, Saxony, and then in 1741 Mengs's father took him to Rome. There he studied Italian Renaissance painters and worked in the studio of Marco Benefial and Sebastiano Conca. Anton Raphael later recalled that sometimes he had been locked into the Stanze of Raphael in the Vatican overnight by his father to make copies of the master's works.
In 1744 Mengs returned from Rome to Dresden. He was appointed Saxon court painter in 1746 and executed a large number of portraits, most in brightly coloured pastels. Mengs soon returned to Rome and about 1755 he became a close friend of the German archaeologist and art critic Johann Joachim Winckelmann. He shared Winckelmann’s enthusiasm for classical antiquity. His study of ancient sculpture and of the masters of the High Renaissance, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Correggio, became the basis for his personal style. In Rome, he established himself as one of the leading painters of the city, at that time the most international artistic center of Europe.
In both the ceiling fresco Apotheosis of St. Eusebius (1757) for the church of S. Eusebio, Rome, and the ceiling fresco Parnassus (1761) for the Villa Albani, Rome, Anton Mengs tried to avoid baroque qualities and emphasize his classicistic doctrines. However, he didn't succeed in it. Mengs also continued to create portraits during this period, competing with Pompeo Batoni, who was the leading Rococo portraitist of the Roman school.
In 1761 Anton Mengs went to Madrid, where he was appointed court painter and worked hectically, producing frescoes for the royal palaces of Madrid and Aranjuez. Moreover, he painted a lot of religious paintings, allegorical works, and portraits, all extremely successful. However, he was forced to stop for a rest in 1768 because of total exhaustion.
From 1769 to 1772 Mengs was in Rome, where he created the ceiling fresco Allegory of History and Time of the Camera dei Papiri in the Vatican Library. The artist returned to Madrid in 1774 for another period of work for the Spanish court. His last 2 years Mengs spent in Rome, where he died of tuberculosis in 1779.
Anton Mengs was considered to be Europe's greatest living painter of his time. Although he died at a relatively early age he had a profound influence not only on his native contemporaries but also on Roman, French and Spanish artists.
Awarded many honours and titles, he enjoyed a level of international prestige enjoyed by no German artist since Albrecht Dürer.
Descent from the Cross
Innocence
Portrait of Ferdinand IV of Naples
Christ on the Cross
Prince James Francis Edward Stuart
Perseus and Andromeda
Self Portrait
Carlos III
Helios as a Personification of Midday
Portrait of Infante Don Luis De Borbón
Saint John the Baptist in the Desert
Portrait of Isabel Parrena Arce, Ruiz De Alarcon Y Valdes, Marquesa De Llano
Johann Joachim Winckelmann
Girl with a Dove
Pleasure
Self Portrait
Hesperus as Personification of the Evening
William Fermor
The Entombment
Portrait of Pope Clement XIII
Robert Stewart, Later 1st Marquess of Londonderry
Carlos IV, Prince of Asturias
Portrait of Charles Hanbury Williams
The Infant Christ Appearing to Saint Anthony of Padua
Madonna and Child
St. Peter
Self Portrait
Richard Wilson
Saint Eusebius Carried to Heaven
Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane
George Harry Grey, 5th Earl of Stamford
Parnassus (study)
The School of Athens (after Raphael)
The Holy Family with the Infant Saint John
Self Portrait
Archduke Ferdinand and Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria
Oedipus at Colonnos Before the Temple of the Eumenides
Maria Amalia of Saxony
Maria Luisa De Borbon, Grand Duchess of Toscana
The Dream of Joseph
Saint John the Baptist Preaching
The Adoration of the Shepherds
Portrait of the Artist's Father
María Luisa of Parma, Princess of Asturias
Portrait of William Burton Conyngham
Octavius Caesar (Later the Emperor Augustus), and Cleopatra
Portrait of John Viscount Garlies, Later 7th Earl of Galloway, as Master of Garlies
Louis De Visme
Noli Me Tangere
Portrait of Pope Clement XIII
The Flagellation of Christ
Seated Male Nude
St. John the Baptist Preaching in the Wilderness
Mengs was a Roman Catholic.
In 1748 Anton Mengs married Margarita Guazzi, who was a model for a number of his paintings. The marriage produced a daughter, Anna Maria Mengs.
