Anton Raphael Mengs

Born in Bohemia on 12 March 1728, Mengs trained under his father and absorbed the emerging taste for antiquity that was sweeping through educated circles. He became a court painter and worked in Rome, Madrid, and other capitals, executing frescoes and portraits that rejected the drama of the previous generation in favor of clarity and idealized form. His theories on art—rooted in study of Raphael and ancient sculpture—gave intellectual weight to the Neoclassical movement just as it was taking hold. He died in Rome on 29 June 1779, having shaped the visual language that would dominate European…