Anton RaPHael Mengs, 1728 Aussig – 1779 Rom, zugeschrieben

MADONNA WITH THE CHILD AND TWO ANGELS Oil on canvas. 109.5 x 84 cm. In gilded frame with palmette molding. Reflecting the classicist spirit of the period, depiction of the standing Mother of God, holding the infant Jesus in her hand, whose hands reach towards the viewer in a clever foreshortening. At each side, once backed by a green velum, a figure traditionally understood as an angel in classical garb. A drawing by Anton Raphael Mengs (20.1 x 15 cm) of the motif offered here is kept in the Kunsthalle Karlsruhe under inv. no. VIII1982, which differs from the painting offered here only in minor details such as the more elongated head and the less gripping hand. A painting from 1770-1773 with the same motif but a slightly more compressed head, the same hand position and a more pronounced sfummato is kept in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (112 x 86 cm, oil on wood, inv. no. Gemäldegalerie 126) and could represent an intermediate stage to the painting offered here, provided the attribution to Mengs can be confirmed. Literature: Cf. Steffi Roettgen, Anton Raphael Mengs, Das malerische und zeichnerische Werk, vol. I, Munich 1999 (14008954) (13)