son of painter
with father, painter Ismael Mengs; with Marco Benefial (1742-44, Rome)
1744 – moves to Dresden as portrait painter
1748 – converts to Roman Catholicism
1751 – appointed Court Painter in Dresden (fired in 1756). Leaves Dresden permanently
1752 – becomes member of Academy of St Luke, Rome based on acceptance of St Mary Magdalene (1752, Gemäldegalerie Neue Meister, Dresden)
1755 – meets Johann Joachim Winckelmann
1761-79 – court painter to Charles III (formerly King of Naples) in Madrid
Italy (mostly Rome) (1740-44, 1746-49, 1751-61)
Saxon court (Dresden); Cardinal Alessandro Albani; Charles III (King of Spain)
Self-Portrait, 1744 (Gemäldegalerie Neue Meister, Dresden)
Electress Maria Antonia of Bavaria, 1752 (Gemäldegalerie Neue Meister, Dresden)
Johann Joachim Winckelmann, c. 1777(Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Triumph of Aurora, 1762-64 (Palacio Real, Madrid)
Irish sculptor Christopher Hewetson (1737-1798), also residing in Rome, made a plaster bust of Mengs in 1779 that belonged to Mengs’s personal collection. The marble version (1781) is in the Capitoline Museum, Rome.
Honisch, Dieter. Anton Raphael Mengs und die Bildform des Frühklassizismus. Recklinghausen: A. Bongers, 1965 (in German)
Mengs, Anton Raphael. Thoughts on Beauty and on Taste in Painting, 1762
Pelzel, Thomas. Anton Raphael Mengs and Neoclassicism: His Art, his Influence and his Reputation. Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1981
Roettgen, Steffi. Anton Raphael Mengs: 1728-1779. Munich: Hirmer, 1999 (In German)