Anton Raphael Mengs

1728–1779

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).

Entries in the Posen Library by This Creator

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Annunciation

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In this baroque Christian altarpiece that Anton Raphael Mengs painted for the Catholic church, the Colegiata of Castrojeriz, which is near Burgos, Spain, the Madonna is holding an open book. The angel…

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Portrait of the Marquesa de Llano

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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…