1728-1779 Dutch Anton Raphael Mengs Gallery Mengs was born in 1728 at Usti nad Labem (German: Aussig) in Bohemia on 12 March 1728; he died in Rome 29 June 1779. His father, Ismael Mengs, a Danish painter, established himself finally at Dresden, whence in 1741 he took his son to Rome. In Rome, his fresco painting of Parnassus at Villa Albani gained him a reputation as a master painter. The appointment of Mengs in 1749 as first painter to Frederick Augustus, elector of Saxony did not prevent his spending much time in Rome, where he had married Margarita Quazzi who had sat for him as a model in 1748, and abjured the Protestant faith, and where he became in 1754 director of the Vatican school of painting, nor did this hinder him on two occasions from obeying the call of Charles III of Spain to Madrid. There Mengs produced some of his best work, and specially the ceiling of the banqueting-hall of the Royal Palace of Madrid, the subject of which was the Triumph of Trajan and the Temple of Glory. Among his pupils there was Agust??n Esteve. After the completion of this work in 1777, Mengs returned to Rome, and there he died, two years later, in poor circumstances, leaving twenty children, seven of whom were pensioned by the king of Spain. His portraits and autoportraits recall an attention to detail and insight, often lost from the grand manner paintings. Besides numerous paintings in the Madrid gallery, the Ascension and St Joseph at Dresden, Perseus and Andromeda at Saint Petersburg, and the ceiling of the Villa Albani must be mentioned among his chief works. In 1911, Henry George Percy, 7th Duke of Northumberland, possessed a Holy Family, and the colleges of All Souls and Magdalen, at Oxford, possessed altar-pieces by Mengs's hand. In his writings, in Spanish, Italian and German, Mengs has put forth his eclectic theory of art, which treats of perfection as attainable by a well-schemed combination of diverse excellences Greek design, with the expression of Raphael, the chiaroscuro of Correggio, and the colour of Titian. He would have fancied himself the first neoclassicist, while in fact he may be the last flicker of Baroque art. Or in the words of Wittkower, In the last analysis, he is as much an end as a beginning. His intimacy with Johann Joachim Winckelmann, who constantly wrote at his dictation, has enhanced his historical importance, for he formed no scholars, and the critic must now concur in Goethe's judgment of Mengs in Winckelmann und sein Jahrhundert; he must deplore that so much learning should have been allied to a total want of initiative and poverty of invention, and embodied with a strained and artificial mannerism. Mengs was famous for his rivalry with the contemporary Italian painter Pompeo Batoni.  Related Paintings of Anton Raphael Mengs :. | Retrato de la Marquesa de Llano | Portrait of Maria Antonietta of Spain | Portrait of Infanta Maria Josefa | Prince of Asturias, Future Charles IV of Spain | Perseus Frees Andromeda |
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oscar wilde
Born: 16 October 1854 Birthplace: Dublin, Ireland Died: 30 November 1900 Best Known As: The author of The Importance of Being Earnest
Carl Christian Klass
painted Apollo and Daphne in
anna maria thelott
Anna Maria Thelott, född 1683, död 1710, var en svensk konstnär. Thelott var en av de första självförsörjande och professionella kvinnliga konstnärerna i Skandinavien. Anna Maria Thelott var dotter till instrumentmakaren och konstnären Philip Jacob Thelott d.ä., som ursprungligen kom från Schweiz, och syster till konstnären Philip Jacob Thelott d.y. Hon arbetade redan som barn sin med far och sina bröder i arbetet med att illustrera Olof Rudbeck d.ä.:s "Campus Elysii" och "Atlantica", och bidrog snart till hushållets försörjning genom att ensam utföra olika konstnärliga arbeten mot betalning, vilket gjorde henne till landets troligen första kvinnliga yrkeskonstnär. Familjen bodde ursprungligen i Uppsala, men flyttade år 1702 till Stockholm efter den stora stadsbranden då en stor del av Uppsala brann ned. Thelott var en mångsidig konstnär som var kunnig på en rad områden; hon utförde träsnitt och kopparstick förutom teckning och illustrationer med allegoriska och religiösa motiv, miniatyrer och bilder av djur och landskapsmålningar. Hon utförde elva träsnitt av tyska städer med tillhörande informativ text på uppdrag av Posttidningen år 1706 och anlitades för att illustrera Peringskiölds arbeten. År 1710 dog Anna Maria Thelott i Stockholm som en av många offer för den sista pesten i Sverige. På Uppsala universitetsbibliotek finns en skissbok av henne utförd 1704-1709.