Anton Raphael Mengs

The artistic theories as well as the works of the German painter Anton Raphael Mengs (1728-1779) were influential in the rejection of baroque ideas and the triumph of neoclassicism which took place in the late 18th century in Rome.

Anton Raphael Mengs was born in Aussig, Bohemia, on March 22, 1728, the son of a painter, Ismael Mengs, whose pupil he became. Taken to Rome to study with Marco Benefial and Sebastiano Conca from 1741 to 1744, Anton Raphael was said to have sometimes been locked into the Stanze of Raphael in the Vatican overnight by his father to make him copy the master's works—a stark but not untypical example of 18th-century pedagogy.

In 1744, living in Dresden, the 16-year-old artist produced pastel portraits of great accomplishment, particularly of members of the Saxon court. Appointed Saxon court painter in 1746, Mengs soon returned to Rome to continue his studies of ancient and Renaissance art. There he converted to Catholicism, married, and established himself as one of the leading painters of the city, at that time the most international artistic center of Europe. His study of ancient sculpture and of the masters of the High Renaissance, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Correggio, became the basis for his personal style. His friendship with Johann Joachim Winckelmann, the celebrated proponent of a return to the "noble simplicity and quiet grandeur" of ancient art, influenced most of his artistic theories. Yet, in spite of this lofty and often overly intellectualized classicism, Mengs retained some of the charming vitality and freshness of the rococo, notably in his portraits.

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, Mengs sought to avoid baroque qualities and emphasize his classicistic doctrines, without really succeeding. Ostentatiously based on his study of classical sculpture, antibaroque in its concept, the Parnassusis one of his less appealing works, in spite of its tremendous fame and influence.

In 1761 Mengs was called to Madrid, where he was appointed court painter and worked feverishly, producing frescoes for the royal palaces of Madrid and Aranjuez, as well as many religious paintings, allegorical works, and portraits, all immensely successful, until total exhaustion forced him to stop for a rest in 1768. Back in Rome the following year, he painted the ceiling fresco Allegory of History and Time of the Camera dei Papiri in the Vatican Library, a work of much greater significance than the Parnassus, foreshadowing, as it does, the allegorical and historical painting of the coming century.

Mengs returned to Madrid in 1774 for yet another period of work for the Spanish court. His last 2 years were spent in Rome, where he died of tuberculosis on June 29, 1779.

Further Reading

Mengs is discussed in Fritz Novotny, Painting and Sculpture in Europe, 1780-1880 (1960), and Eberhard Hempel, Baroque Art and Architecture in Central Europe (1965).

Additional Sources

Pelzel, Thomas, Anton Raphael Mengs and neoclassicism, New York: Garland Pub., 1979. □

Mengs, Anton Raphael (b Aussig, Bohemia [now Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic], 12 Mar. 1728; d Rome, 29 June 1779). German painter, the son of a court painter in Dresden, Ismael Mengs (1688–1764). His father brought him up with harsh severity to be a great painter, on the models particularly of Correggio and Raphael (from whom he gained his Christian names). In 1740 he was taken to Rome and there established a reputation as a youthful prodigy. He returned to Germany in 1744 and in the next few years achieved success as a portraitist in Dresden. In 1748–9 he made another visit to Rome, during which he married an Italian girl, and in 1752 he settled in the city, becoming a close friend of Winckelmann, who provided much of the theoretical inspiration for his work. It was for Winckelmann's patron, Cardinal Albani, that Mengs painted his most famous work, the ceiling fresco Parnassus (1761) in the Villa Albani (now the Villa Torlonia), Rome. The fresco now seems flimsy and simpering, but it was the basis of Mengs's enormous contemporary reputation (he was widely regarded not only as a leader of the Neoclassical movement, but also as the greatest living painter). It breaks completely with Baroque illusionism, treating the scene exactly as if it were to be seen at normal eye level (see quadro riportato), and is full of allusions to the antique and the High Renaissance. In 1761–9 and 1774–7 he worked as court painter in Spain, carrying out a large amount of decoration in the Royal Palace, Madrid. His frescos there are dull and sterile, but it is a sign of the move in taste towards Neoclassicism that certain of his works were preferred to those of Giambattista Tiepolo, now regarded as an incomparably greater artist. Mengs was influential through his writings on art (which appeared in or soon after his lifetime in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish) as well as his paintings. Today his portraits are considered more successful than his history paintings, and he was Batoni's main rival as the leading portraitist in Rome.

Mengs, Anton Raphael (1728–79). German painter, the son of a court painter in Dresden, Ismael Mengs (1688–1764). His father brought him up with harsh severity to be a great painter, on the models particularly of Correggio and Raphael (from whom he gained his Christian names). In 1740 he was taken to Rome and there established a reputation as a youthful prodigy. He returned to Germany in 1744 and in the next few years achieved success as a portraitist in Dresden. In 1748–9 he made another visit to Rome, during which he married an Italian girl, and in 1752 he settled in the city, becoming a close friend of Winckelmann, who provided much of the theoretical inspiration for his work. It was for Winckelmann's patron, Cardinal Alessandro Albani, that Mengs painted his most famous work, the ceiling fresco Parnassus (1761) in the Villa Albani (now the Villa Torlonia), Rome. The fresco now seems flimsy and simpering, but it was the basis of Mengs's enormous contemporary reputation (he was widely regarded not only as a leader of the Neoclassical movement, but also as the greatest living painter). It breaks completely with Baroque illusionism, treating the scene exactly as if it were to be seen at normal eye level, and is full of allusions to the antique and the High Renaissance. In 1761–9 and 1774–7 he worked as court painter in Spain, carrying out a large amount of decoration in the Royal Palace, Madrid. His frescos there are dull and sterile, but it is a sign of the move in taste towards Neoclassicism that certain of his works were preferred to those of his rival Giambattista Tiepolo, now regarded as an incomparably greater artist. Mengs was influential through his writings on art (which appeared in or soon after his lifetime in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish) as well as his paintings. Today his portraits are considered more successful than his history paintings, and he was Batoni's main rival as the leading portraitist in Rome.

Anton Raphael Mengs , 1728–79, German historical and portrait painter, b. Bohemia. He was the pupil of his father, Ismael Mengs (c.1688–1764), a Dresden miniaturist who took him to Italy in 1741. Anton was appointed Dresden court painter in 1749. Influenced by the theories of Winckelmann , he became the leading light of the neoclassical movement. His major works include Parnassus (1761; Villa Albani, Rome) and Apotheosis of Trajan (Madrid), which he created as court painter to Charles III of Spain. His portrait of Johann Joachim Winckelmann is in the Metropolitan Museum. Mengs was also an important theoretician.

Bibliography: See his Collected Works (1780). His most famous work was Considerations on Beauty and Taste in Painting (1762).