Neoclassicist Anton Raphael Mengs within the Prado in Madrid | EUROtoday

His modern Luigi Lanzi naturally described him because the “Apelles of his time” in his description of the Florentine Uffizi, not with out including that he was underneath the safety of the “most powerful king” all through his life and loved his profitable help. That was 1782, and with the king was Charles III. of Spain, whose courtroom painter the particular person so honored was since 1761: Anton Raphael Mengs, born in 1728 in Aussig, Bohemia, and died in Rome in 1779. When Lanzi visited the Uffizi, a self-portrait of Mengs hung immediately under that of Raphael. Mengs himself had requested for the distinguished placement as a result of he noticed himself on the identical degree because the position mannequin.

Without the princely favor, the fairy-tale profession that Mengs had loved since his sad childhood and which took him first to the Dresden courtroom, then to that of Madrid, with a few years in between in Rome, the world heart of Western artwork, is unthinkable. But when the star of the supposed Apelles not solely sank, however truly crashed, barely twenty years after his demise, the one impression that remained was that solely princely help had raised him to the heights from which he was now erased – and which stays to this present day.

Mengs’ title is now notably acquainted to artwork historians. It is definitely an indication of braveness that the Prado in Madrid will not be solely organizing a retrospective of his work, however can be aggressively selling it as crucial exhibition of the winter. After all, there may very well be no extra appropriate place than Madrid to undertake such a reassessment, as it’s right here, within the Prado in addition to within the Royal Collections, that almost all of Mengs’ work are preserved, at the very least so far as they’re transportable. In addition to easel work, he additionally created murals, crucial of which is in Rome, within the villa of Cardinal Albani. And in fact the ceiling work within the Madrid fortress of his patron, King Charles III, the place they ideally compete with the contemporaneous frescoes by the very newest of all Baroque painters, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. However, that Mengs did his finest to hurt his colleague, who was a technology older than him, is a declare that was later unfold to emphasise the primacy of Italian artwork and, as analysis has discovered, is nothing greater than slander.

Mengs will not be one of many favorites of the exhibition business as of late, neither is he even considered one of its fringe figures. The final overview was 24 years in the past, in Dresden, the primary of the three biographical areas. But this was solely the third monographic exhibition of his work. In the Prado, quantity 4, the customer encounters a self-portrait by Mengs proper initially of the exhibition, the one from 1761, which reveals him with a portfolio and drawing pencil, thus as a consultant of what was seen as the very best of inventive expertise in Rome on the time drawing. And on the finish of the exhibition, which is saved very dense and manageable with 159 catalog numbers, together with 64 work in addition to drawings, sculptures and modern publications, the given tour, which isn’t perceived as restrictive, leads head-on to a different self-portrait, the identical one from the Uffizi – the artist once more with a drawing portfolio, recognizable by just a few sheets of paper simply peeking out, however now with a view into the space. Self-portraits are additionally interspersed all through the tour, beginning with the sixteen-year-old’s virtuoso chalk drawing from 1744. A journey by means of life is informed, in addition to the quiet admission that artwork alone is not capable of captivate lots of right now’s individuals sufficient.

A Roman pal, Casanova’s brother, made the pointed however apt comment that Mengs “wished he had lived as Raphael.” Because it captures the tragedy of the transformation of a bygone artwork epoch: on the identical time with the ability to grasp it, even presumably good it, and exactly due to this, dwelling a second-hand life. So the curators introduced right here a big format by Raphael from the Prado’s everlasting exhibition, the “Carrying the Cross”, accomplished in 1516, and subsequent to it hung Mengs’ “Lamentation of Christ”, created in 1768 for the royal bed room. The format and figures correspond in measurement to the mannequin that he was capable of examine within the royal collections. The variations, the clear shapes and robust colours in Raphael’s, the muted palette and the emphasised feelings in Meng’s, are all of the extra placing, particularly within the tearful eyes of the Mother of God, a frequent element with him. In truth, he had tried a synthesis of the painters after whom his extraordinarily strict father had named him, Anton for Correggio, born Antonio Allegri, and Raphael for Raffaele Sanzio. A 3rd particular person was exemplary, the Venetian Titian. In a way, Mengs had the quintessence of Renaissance portray inside him and sought to mix it in his works.

From right now’s perspective, it isn’t shocking that the comparability of the 2 massive codecs will not be in favor of the later one. Not so in Mengs’ personal time. This explains the hymnal reward of his pal Winckelmann from his “History of the Art of Antiquity” from 1764: Mengs was “awakened as a phoenix, so to speak, from the ashes of the first Raphael in order to teach the world beauty in art and to achieve the highest flight of human powers in it”. The direct comparability, body by body, could appear overly didactic, but it surely corresponds precisely to Meng’s intentions, who needed to see artwork strictly primarily based on the mannequin, the glorified High Renaissance in portray in addition to that of antiquity, which had solely been preserved in sculpture and whose plaster casts Meng, like so many contemporaries, collected.

All the extra revealing is the sick joke that Mengs made with a pal when he offered the supposedly historic portray “Jupiter Kisses Ganymede,” which was so just like the just lately uncovered wall work in Pompeii. Winckelmann instantly praised it within the highest tones – till the fraud was found. The friendship of the 2 heralds of a brand new, of their eyes, revived classicism fell aside as a consequence of scandal and malicious glee. This faux, borrowed from Rome, could be seen within the Prado, to not denounce Mengs – who is alleged to have solely admitted authorship on his deathbed – however to underline the uncritical enthusiasm for antiquity, of which Mengs additionally emerged as an exponent.

In his Roman fresco from 1761, the ceiling portray depicting the Greek Parnassus, the brand new model reached its legitimate formulation. It is now generally known as neoclassicism; For Mengs, as for his shut pal Winckelmann, it was the unconditional resumption of Greek antiquity, mediated by the Romans, which was seen as the head of artwork improvement, and on the identical time the Renaissance, understood as such actually.

Mengs’ principal theoretical work, “Thoughts on Beauty and Taste in Painting” from 1762, expressly devoted by the writer to Winckelmann, turned a textbook in European academies. The proven fact that the Prado additionally offers house to idea manufacturing and its dissemination in numerous books makes the exhibition, past the particular person of its protagonist, a glimpse into the mental lifetime of the 18th century.

Mengs was one of many best-paid artists of his time, notably in demand as a portraitist, which the present impressively confirms in lots of examples. But he paid for his excessive standing together with his well being and died, simply 51 years outdated, returning to his beloved Rome in 1779. His fame lasted till the top of the century, when somebody like Jacques-Louis David emerged, who knew the best way to cost neoclassicism with a political message. That would have been utterly overseas to Mengs. But what he created and convincingly demonstrated within the Madrid exhibition makes him stand out as one of many greats of his period, who has been wrongly and too lengthy ignored.

Anton Raphael Mengs 1728–1779. Madrid, Prado; till March 1, 2026. The catalog in Spanish or English prices 39 euros.