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…
Numerous figurines of horses, sometimes including a rider, have been found. Most have traces of paint; it is likely that they were all originally painted. The paint sometimes depicts the horse’s…
Dialoghi di m. Magino Gabrielli Hebreo, sopra l’utile sue inventioni circa la seta (Dialogues of Magino Gabrielli, Hebrew, On the Utility of His Inventions in Silk Production), printed in Rome, is a…