[From the marble by Roubiliac.]
315. Johan Joachim Winckelmann. Antiquary.
[Born at Steindal, in Germany, 1717. Died at Trieste, in Austria, 1768. Aged 51.]
The son of a shoemaker, and self-educated. At thirty became a Roman Catholic, and journeyed to Rome, where he studied the antique, and published his celebrated. “History of Art.” At Trieste he was murdered by a felon, for the sake of the medals conferred upon him by the Courts of Austria and Bavaria. His investigations into the true principles and significance of high art, more especially of antique sculpture, led the way to the enlightened criticism of Lessing and Goethe.
[By Doel. It was placed in the Capitoline Museum at Rome, by Geo. F. Reiffenstein.]
315*. Anthony Raphael Mengs. Painter.
[Born at Aussig, in Bohemia, 1728. Died at Rome, 1771. Aged 43.]
Surnamed, but without much reason, the Rafaelle of Germany. He studied assiduously at the Vatican. Upon his return to Germany he was appointed at Dresden painter to the King. Revisiting Rome he fell in love with a beautiful peasant girl, and became a Roman Catholic in order to marry her. In 1757, he commenced painting in fresco, and his works of this kind will bear comparison with some of the best of the Italian masters. In 1761, he was invited by Charles III. to Spain, where he painted for the palace at Madrid, the “Apotheosis of Trajan.” This is his chef d’œuvre. He died leaving scarcely sufficient to pay his funeral expenses, and the King of Spain provided for his seven children. The works of Mengs display correctness of drawing, vigour of colouring, finished execution, and studied grace: but the loftier qualities of mind, demanded by historical painting, are wanting. He was a writer on art as well as an artist: and a generous, warm-hearted man.
[Bust to come.]
316. Franz Joseph Haydn. Musical Composer.