Anton Raphael Mengs, son of Ismael Israel Mengs (1688–1764), a Dresden court painter who had converted to Protestantism, was a pioneer of the neoclassical style. In his time, he was celebrated as the greatest living painter. Among Mengs’s most notable works are the ceiling fresco Parnassus with Apollo and the Muses (1759) in the Villa Albani in Rome and the frescoes he painted for Charles III at the Palacio Real in Madrid (1762–1769 and 1774–1775). Mengs published a number of volumes on art, including the influential handbook for painters Thoughts on Beauty and Taste in Painting (1762).
Isabel María Parreño Arce y Valdés (1759–1822), the Marquesa de Llano, had her portrait painted by Anton Raphael Mengs, in Parma, Italy, where her husband was the ambassador from Spain. At the time…
Although Bergner did not personally experience the Holocaust, it was a recurring theme in his art. Here, in a painting in the style of a child’s drawing, a child wearing a hat, typical of others seen…
Scarab-shaped seal, Achziv, Iron Age IIC (732/701–586 BCE). Seals were used as stamps to impress images and/or words onto clay objects. They were often perforated so they could be suspended from cords…