Anton Raphael Mengs Ústi nad Labem, Bohemia (Czech Republic) 1728 - 1779 Rome

S. Röttgen, Anton Raphael Mengs 1728-1779, vol. 1, Munich 1999, p. 185, cat. no. 123, reproduced.

Mengs has chosen one of the rarer interpretations of Truth current since the writings of Ripa.  In her right hand she holds a peach with a single leaf, joint symbols of the heart and tongue which together speak the truth.  As usual her figure is portrayed nearly naked and without jewellery or other adornments, lightly covered by the veil which, in other renderings, is drawn aside by the figure of Time.

This canvas is the only oil painting of this subject by Mengs so far known.  Mengs painted a similar, though not identical version in pastel, and of oval form, not within a painted oval, which seems to have been the version recorded in the Saxon Royal Collection in Dresden until 1787 (see Röttgen, under Literature, pp. 185-6, no. 124, reproduced).  Although the poses are the same, the shape of the face differs considerably between the two.  Röttgen suggests that the present oil painting remained in Mengs' studio in Rome, where Nikolaus Mosimann (c.1727-1787) drew a copy after it, inscribed Cavaliere Antonio Raffaele Mengs pinxit.  The drawing was in the collection of the 9th Earl of Exeter by 1789, and is now in the British Museum (Röttgen, op. cit., p. 185, under no. 123, no. WK 1).   In its chaste classicism and clear draughtsmanship, this picture fits well with a group of religious and allegorical works of half-length figures painted in the early 1750s.