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ANTONY RAPHAEL MENGS (1728-1779)

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Originally appearing in Volume V18, Page 129 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ANTONY See also:

RAPHAEL See also:MENGS (1728-1779)  , See also:German painter, was See also:born in 1728 at See also:Aussig in Bohemia, but his See also:father, Ismael See also:Mengs, a Danish painter, established himself finally at See also:Dresden, whence in 1741 he took his son to See also:Rome . The See also:appointment of Mengs in 1749 as first painter to the elector of See also:Saxony did not prevent his spending much See also:time in Rome, where he had married in 1748, and abjured the See also:Protestant faith, and where he became in 1754 director of the Vatican school of See also:painting, nor did this hinder him on two occasions from obeying the See also:call of See also:Charles III. of See also:Spain to See also:Madrid . There Mengs produced some of his best See also:work, and specially the See also:ceiling of the banqueting-See also:hall, the subject of which was the See also:Triumph of See also:Trajan and the See also:Temple of See also:Glory . After the completion of this work in 1777, Mengs returned to Rome, and there he died, two years later, in poor circumstances, leaving twenty See also:children, seven of whom were pensioned by the See also:king of Spain . Besides numerous paintings in the Madrid See also:gallery, the See also:Ascension at Dresden, See also:Perseus and See also:Andromeda at St See also:Petersburg, and the ceiling of the See also:Villa See also:Albani must be mentioned among his See also:chief See also:works . In See also:England, the See also:duke of See also:Northumberland possesses a See also:Holy See also:Family, and the colleges of All Souls and Magdalen, at See also:Oxford, have See also:altar-pieces by his See also:hand . In his writings, in See also:Spanish, See also:Italian and German, Mengs has put forth his eclectic theory of See also:art, which treats of perfection as attainable by a well-schemed See also:combination of diverse excellences—See also:Greek See also:design, with the expression of See also:Raphael, the See also:chiaroscuro of See also:Correggio, and the See also:colour of See also:Titian . His intimacy with See also:Winckelmann—who constantly wrote at his dictation—has enhanced his See also:historical importance, for he formed no scholars, and the critic must now concur in See also:Goethe's See also:judgment of Mengs in Winckelmann and sein Jahrhundert; he must deplore that so much learning should have been allied to a See also:total want of initiative and poverty of invention, and embodied with a strained and artificial mannerism . See Opere di See also:Antonio Raffaello Mengs (See also:Parma, 178o) ; Mengs Werke, ubersetzt v . G . F . Prange (1786); Zeitschri t See also:fur bildende Kunst (188o); Bianconi, Elogio storico di Mengs (See also:Milan, 1780); Woermann, Ismael and Raphael Mengs (See also:Leipzig, 1893) .

End of Article: ANTONY RAPHAEL MENGS (1728-1779)
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