ATTRIBUTED TO ANTON RAPHAEL MENGS (GERMAN, 1728-1779)

Prospective purchasers are advised that several co… Read more

Details

ATTRIBUTED TO ANTON RAPHAEL MENGS (GERMAN, 1728-1779)
Maria-Antonia-Walpurgis, Hereditary Electress of Saxony (1724-1780), in pale green silk dress with pink lining, ermine-trimmed blue cloak, wearing the breast-star of the Imperial Russian Order of St Catherine and the badge of the Habsburg Order of the Starry Cross, powdered hair
on vellum
oval, 2¼ in. (57 mm.) high, tortoiseshell frame with pearl and ruby-set gold surmount

Provenance

Christie’s, Geneva, 16 November 1993, lot 145.

Exhibited

Milan, Mostra di miniature e ventagli, 1908, no. 57 (illustrated in exhibition catalogue, pl. XXI).

Special notice

Prospective purchasers are advised that several countries prohibit the importation of property containing materials from endangered species, including but not limited to coral, ivory and tortoiseshell. Accordingly, prospective purchasers should familiarize themselves with relevant customs regulations prior to bidding if they intend to import this lot into another country. Items which contain rubies or jadeite originating in Burma (Myanmar) may not be imported into the U.S. Please be advised that a purchasers inability to import any such item into the U.S. or any other country shall not constitute grounds for non-payment or cancellation of the sale. With respect to items that contain any other types of gemstones originating in Burma (e.g., sapphires), such items may be imported into the U.S., provided that the gemstones have been mounted or incorporated into jewellery outside of Burma and provided that the setting is not of a temporary nature (e.g., a string).

Sale room notice

Prospective purchasers are advised that several countries prohibit the importation of property containing materials from endangered species, including but not limited to coral, ivory and tortoiseshell. Accordingly, prospective purchasers should familiarize themselves with relevant customs regulations prior to bidding if they intend to import this lot into another country.

Items which contain rubies or jadeite originating in Burma (Myanmar) may not be imported into the U.S. Please be advised that a purchasers inability to import any such item into the U.S. or any other country shall not constitute grounds for non-payment or cancellation of the sale. With respect to items that contain any other types of gemstones originating in Burma (e.g., sapphires), such items may be imported into the U.S., provided that the gemstones have been mounted or incorporated into jewellery outside of Burma and provided that the setting is not of a temporary nature (e.g., a string).

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Lot Essay

Maria-Antonia-Walpurgis was the daughter of Elector Charles-Albrecht of Bavaria (as Charles VII Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire) and his wife Maria-Amalia of Habsburg. In 1747, she married the Saxon Hereditary Prince Frederick-Christian who succeeded his father Frederick-Augustus (see previous lot) in 1763 but died in December of the same year after a reign of only six weeks. Maria-Antonia-Walpurgis was an important sponsor of the arts, and an accomplished composer, singer, poet and painter herself.
The outstanding quality of the present miniature justifies the attribution to Anton Raphael Mengs who painted the princess several times. A similar large oil painting by Mengs of 1751 is illustrated in the exhibition catalogue Königliches Dresden, Munich, Hypo-Kulturstiftung, 1990-1991, no. 28. See also S. Röttgen, Anton Raphael Mengs 1728-1779. Das malerische und zeichnerische Werk, I, Munich, 1999, pp. 236-237, no. 164.

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