Circle of ANTON RAPHAEL MENGS (Aussig, Bohemia,... Lot 38

Circle of ANTON RAPHAEL MENGS (Aussig, Bohemia, 1728-Rome, 1779). "Saint John the Baptist. Oil on canvas. Re-tinted. It presents restorations. Size: 28,5 x 35,5 cm; 39 x 49 cm (frame). The work we are dealing with closely follows the aesthetic precepts developed by Mengs, Charles III's first chamber painter whose art enjoyed great acceptance at the court. Thus, we are faced with a Saint John the Baptist with soft, delicate features, notable for his naturalness. Despite the fact that he is depicted beardless, when he usually has long, shaggy beards, there are various attributes that allow us to identify the figure as Saint John the Baptist: firstly, the figure points with his right hand to a broad staff, topped in the form of a cross, covered by a phylactery. Secondly, although it is not visible in this composition, the phylactery should read "Agnus dei ...", a reference to the phrase "This is the Lamb of God who cleanses the sin of the world". The lamb, a symbol of Christ and his sacrifice on behalf of mankind, a customary attribute of St John the Baptist, is not found in this work. The artist was probably inspired by classical images of the "Good Shepherd", bucolic figures of young shepherds tending their flocks that were adopted in early Christianity as symbolic figures of Jesus caring for his faithful. This inspiration from classical sources may explain the youthful, beardless appearance of Saint John. A painter and theorist of Neoclassicism, Anton Raphael Mengs was trained in both the practical aspects of painting and the theory of art under the influence of Winckelmann, whose friend and outstanding pupil he was. He trained in Dresden under his father, Ismael Mengs, a court painter. Later, between 7141 and 1744, he travelled to Rome to further his training with Marco Benefial, studying in particular ancient sculpture and the paintings of Raphael and the 17th-century classicists. In 1744 he returned to Dresden and was appointed court painter, where he devoted himself chiefly to portraiture. In 1746 he was appointed painter to King Augustus III of Poland and subsequently undertook a tour of Italy, ending in Rome, where he settled permanently. In the Italian capital he executed important religious and mythological works in fresco, displaying a mature, clearly neoclassical style influenced by the Renaissance and, more specifically, by the work of Raphael. In 1761 he was recalled to Spain, where he remained until 1769 as the first painter to King Charles III. For him he painted works to decorate the Royal Palace and the Aranjuez Palace, as well as important portraits. His presence in Madrid definitively pushed Tiepolo into a corner, as Mengs represented a new taste that was widely accepted at court. Although he later returned to Rome, he visited the Spanish court again between 1774 and 1776, shortly before contracting the illness that led to his death in Italy in 1779. Works by Mengs are now in the Museo del Prado, the Louvre in Paris, the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg, the Metropolitan in New York, the National Gallery and the Royal Collection in London, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Albertina in Vienna and other leading art galleries in Europe and the United States.