Anton Raphael Mengs

Anton Raphael Mengs - Early encouragement from his father; court painter in Dresden

Anton Raphael Mengs was born on 17th March 1728 in the northern Bohemian town of Aussig (now Ústí nad Labem in the Czech Republic). As the son of the Saxon court painter Ismael Meng, who specialised in miniatures and enamel painting, he received his first drawing lessons as a child together with his sister Theresa Concordia, who was three years elder. In 1741, Anton Raphael Mengs travelled to Rome in 1741 with his father, where he studied the old masters, in particular Michelangelo and Raphael, until 1744. His further training in Italy bore fruit soon after his return home, when Mengs won the favour of Elector Augustus III with his portraits produced in perfect pastel technique and who appointed him cabinet painter. Just one year later, he travelled to Italy again, converted to Catholicism, perfected his skills and finally married the Roman Margherita Guazzi. In 1751, Mengs was appointed First Court Painter in Dresden; in this position, he received a salary of 1,000 thalers a year and mainly painted portraits, but also created religious scenes, for example altarpieces for the Dresden Court Church. 

In Rome, Mengs heralded a new era in art history

Anton Raphael Mengs returned to Italy to study, where he became a member of the Accademia di San Luca in Rome and met the German archaeologist and art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann. Winckelmann imparted Mengs with fundamental ideas on art theory and thus exerted a lasting influence on the painter's understanding of art and his work. With the resulting turn from Rococo to Early Classicism, Mengs finally found himself at the pinnacle of the artists of his time and proved himself a pioneer and trailblazer of a new epoch. He also received decisive support from the Spanish politician and patron José Nicolás de Azara. One work that illustrates this caesura particularly clearly and represents a break with late Baroque visual habits is the ceiling fresco Parnassus, which Mengs created for the Villa Albani and which is considered a major work of German Classicism. Here he dispensed with the dogma of movement and spatial depth in favour of sublime calm and composure. Pope Clement XIII appointed Mengs a ‘Cavaliere di speron d'oro’, a Knight of the Order of the Golden Spur, for his services.

During his lifetime, Mengs was considered one of the greatest masters of his time

Emperor Charles VII, whom Anton Raphael Mengs had already portrayed in Naples, summoned the artist to Madrid in 1761, where he was responsible for the decoration of the Palacio Real together with Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. With his painting Jupiter Kissing Ganymede, Mengs succeeded in playing with the ancient painting techniques known from the rediscovered Pompeii with such virtuosity that many connoisseurs - including Goethe and Mengs' close friend Winckelmann - believed it to be a genuine antique work. The latter felt that his own misjudgement was a huge embarrassment and did not forgive the artist for the deception. Anton Raphael Mengs was very impressed by his acquaintance with the young Francisco de Goya and arranged a job for him at the royal carpet manufactory. Due to his deteriorating health, he finally returned to Rome, where his great fame had already led to his self-portrait being displayed in the Uffizi Gallery beneath Raphael's painting - an unheard-of honour for an artist who was still alive.

Anton Raphael Mengs died on 29th June 1779 in Rome.