Anton Raphael Mengs

Probably the painting described by Don José Nicolas de Azara in 1800 as being commisisoned by Don Diego Sarmiento de Mendoza, XIII Conde de Ribadavia, de Castrogeriz y de Villazopeque (1715–76);
Thence by descent to Don Joaquín María Gayoso de los Cobos y Bermudez de Castro, XV Conde de Ribadavia y XII Marqués de Camarasa (1778–1849);
Thence by marriage and inheritance to
Don Andrés Avelino de Arteaga y Silva Carvajal y Téllez Girón, XVI Duque del Infantado (1833–1915);
Don Joaquín de Arteaga y Echagüe Silva y Méndez de Vigo XVII Duque del Infantado y Marqués de Santillana y de Ariza (1870–1947) (his collection labels affixed to the reverse);
Thence by descent to his daughter Doña Teresa de Jesús de Arteaga y Falguera, XII Marquesa de la Eliseda and Condesa de los Andes (1909–62);
Thence by direct descent to the present owner.

Probably G. N. de Azara, Obras de D. Antonio Rafael Mengs, Primer Pintor de Camera del Rey, Madrid 1780, p. 72;
Possibly G. L. Bianconi, Elogio storico del Cavaliere Anton Raffaele mengs scritto dal Consigler Bianconi con un catalogo in Fine delle Opere da esso fatte, Milan 1780, cat. no. 91;
Possibly J. P. Doray de Longrais, Oeuvres de Mengs, Regensburg 1782, p. 32;
Possibly H. Jansen, Oeuvres complètes d'Anthoine Raphael Mengs, Paris 1786, vol. I, pp. 61–62;
Possibly C. F. Prange, Des Ritters Anton Taphael mengs ersten Mahlers Karl III König in Spanien hinterlassne Werke, Halle 1786, vol. I, pp. 94–95;
Possibly G.N. de Azara and C. Fea, Opere di Antonio Raffaello Mengs, primo pittore del Re cattolico Carlo III, Rome 1787, pp. 43, 45;
Possibly A. Ponz, Viaje fuera de España, vol. XIV, Madrid 1788, p. 48;
Possibly D. Honisch, Anton Raphael Mengs und die Bildform des Frühklassisizmus, Recklinhuasen 1965, p. 135, cat. no. 343;
S. Roettgen, Anton Raphael Mengs 1725–1779, Munich 1999, vol. I, p. 129, cat. no. 82;
J. Jordán, 'Sobra la lista de las pinturas de Mengs, existentes, o hechas en España', Bolètin Museo del Prado, vol. 18, no. 36, 2000, p. 75.  

The canvas is unlined but not slack, it has possibly been recently stretched. The canvas is stable and appears to be in good, fresh, overall condition. There are a small number of old repaired minor damages, the most significant of which is a restored old Z shaped tear to the lower left of the cross. There has been a very small amount of losses in the Saints forehead and right eye which have been restored. The surface is dirty and the varnish discoloured, but the paint underneath has been preserved.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

In 1780 Mengs’ earliest biographer and patron Don José Nicolas de Azara, the Spanish ambassador in Rome, described among works painted by Mengs for private patrons, a picture of the ‘Assumption’ together with ‘Another of Saint John the Baptist preaching, … six feet high, and less than five in breadth, both for the Count of Ribadavia. Mengs finished this painting in a particular style never used by him before. The situation in which it was to be placed has a sky light which strikes upon the eyes of the spectators; for this reason, he forced nature a little, made great masses, and marked the parts with great force. It appears a painting after the style of Michelangelo when he is not overcharged, or of Raphael whe he wishes to combat with that of the Conflagration of Borgo’.¹ Clues as to the painting’s appearance may be gleaned from two pictures of this subject: a large canvas of the Baptist listed in Mengs’ inventory after his death in 1779, which was subsequently purchased by the Empress Catherine the Great of Russia in 1781 and is now in the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg (fig. 1), and a smaller modello for this or another picture, which subsequently entered the collections of the Borghese family in 1785, but is now lost.² Whereas the Saint Petersburg version is identical to the present work except by virtue of its larger size (208 x 153 cm.), the modello formerly in Rome, which may have represented an earlier stage in the evolution of the design, differs from both in the inclusion of the Baptist’s lamb at the bottom right of the composition and the omission of his staff.

The original Saint John was apparently painted by Mengs for his friend and early patron Don Diego Sarmiento, Conde de Castro y Ribadavia (1715–76), for whom he had already painted in 1767 an Annunciation as part of a commission for the high altar of the collegiate church of Castrogeriz, where he was patron and where it remains.³ It is very possible that the lost Saint John was indeed in Madrid, for in or before 1788 the historian Antonio Ponz described the picture bought by Catherine the Great thus: ‘S. Juan predicando en el desierto, figura sentada del tamaño del natural. Es sin duda repeticion de la que vimos en Madrid, y pinto para el Conde de Ribadavia.’, clearly suggesting the existence of another (primary) version which he had seen in Madrid.⁴ It cannot, however, be the painting of the Baptist which now forms part of the Castrogeriz altarpiece, for that is the work of another painter. It may perhaps have been destined for it and then not used, but its style is surely closer to that of Mengs' second Spanish period of 1774–76 rather than 1767 or thereabouts. Ponz's reference implies that the lost Saint John was of the same design as that now in Russia, and if this is the case then the present canvas could therefore be that painted for Ribadavia. In additional support of this suggestion is the fact that a direct line of descent can be traced from his day to the present owners. The painting can be certainly identified again in the the mid-nineteenth century, when it had passed by inheritance into the celebrated family collections of the Dukes of Infantado and by which time its true nature had been obscured by an attribution to the nineteenth-century court painter Vicente Lopez (1772–1850).

 

1. The Works of Anthony Raphael Mengs, English edition London 1796, pp. 71–72. The 'Assumption' is in fact the Annunciation now at Castrogeriz.
2. Mengs Estate Inventory, 15 September 1779, fol. 481v: 'S. Giovanni, che predica, figura grande come il vero, finita, e sedente'. See S. Roettgen, Literature, 1999, vol. I, pp. 129–131, 563, cat. nos 83 and 84. The appearance of the ex-Borghese picture is recorded by a drawing by Franz Caucig (1755–1828) made in Rome between 1781 and 1787 and now in the Akademie in Vienna. It is last recorded among a group of paintings taken by Prince Camillo Borghese from Rome to Turin in September 1809 (cf. P. Della Pergola, Galleria Borghese. I dipinti, vol. II, Rome 1959, p. 225, n. 97). Mengs' inventory (fol. 482r, no. 5, listed by Roettgen, op. cit., pp. 493, no. QU 55, and p. 563) also lists an 'Altro Giovanni' similar to that in Russia, but this apparently had a rounded top ('semilunare').
3. Roettgen, op. cit., 2003, vol. I, p. 31, cat. no. 5.
4. Viaje fuera de Espana, vol. XIV, Madrid 1788, p. 48.