Vorbild Antike

Anton Raphael Mengs (1728-1779) was one of the most significant painters of his time - his contemporaries referred to him as "Raphaele del nostro secolo." He revolutionized art and is considered the inventor of Neoclassicism. Mengs' patrons included kings, princes, popes, and cardinals. He worked in Dresden and Madrid, but especially in Rome, where he assembled one of the largest collections of plaster casts of ancient sculptures. This collection served as a teaching and exhibition resource and was open to young artists as well as distinguished and educated travelers. In 1782, Elector Frederick Augustus III acquired almost 900 of these casts for Dresden, of which nearly 500 have survived to this day. The volume traces the life of Anton Raphael Mengs and presents him as an artist as well as a passionate collector of plaster casts, of which 27 - including such famous statues as the Apollo of Belvedere and the Capitoline Venus - are presented in detail.