Anton
Raphael Mengs
(b Ústi nad Labem [Ger. Aussig], Bohemia
(now in Czech Republic), 12 March 1728; d Rome, 29 June 1779).
Painter and writer, brother of Theresia Concordia Mengs. His early
career was at the Dresden court; thereafter he worked principally in
Rome and Madrid, notably on the frescoes at the Villa Albani and the
Palacio Real respectively. As an early exponent of Neo-classicism he
produced some impressive classical and religious scenes, though he was
most accomplished as a portrait painter. Under the influence of Johann
Joachim Winckelmann he also wrote some theoretical works, of which the
most important is the Gedanken über die Schönheit und über den
Geschmack in der Malerey (1762). Although acclaimed during his
lifetime, he was later regarded as an unimaginative eclectic, a view
that continues to be widely held.