Circle of ANTON RAPHAEL MENGS (Aussig, Ústi nad Labem, Czech Republic, 1728-Rome, 1779)"Immaculate

Circle of ANTON RAPHAEL MENGS (Aussig, Ústi nad Labem, Czech Republic, 1728-Rome, 1779)
"Immaculate Conception.
Oil on canvas.
Presents the original frame. Re-framed.
Size: 135 x 96 cm; 158 x 117 cm (frame).
This work closely follows the aesthetic precepts developed by Mengs, Charles III's first chamber painter, whose art was very popular at court. Thus, we find ourselves in front of an Immaculate Conception, the Virgin shows a moving and agitated attitude, especially through the control that undulates in space, corresponding to one of the concepts most promoted in the painting of Anton Raphael Mengs. The chromaticism of the painting shows the usual contrast between the white of the tunic, symbol of purity, and the blue of the cloak (symbol of truth and eternity), colours given to the Immaculate Conception on the basis of the vision that Blessed Beatriz de Silva had of her in the 16th century, who wrote about these tones.
We see Mary with the classical iconography, surrounded by angels and cherubs, and with the crescent moon on her feet, treading on the serpent which is an allegory of the devil, thus showing the artist's interest in sticking to a specific space and adapting the figures to it as much as possible.
A painter and theorist of Neoclassicism, Anton Raphael Mengs 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.