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Lot Essay
This is the preliminary head study for a portrait by Mengs in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg (inv. no. 1358). In the finished work, the sitter's Van Dyck collar has been changed to an open shirt; otherwise the pose of the head is largely unaltered.
According to Uhde-Bernays, loc. cit., the picture came from the collection of José Nicolas de Azara, Marchese di Nibbiano (1730-1804), whence it passed into the collection of the Spanish sculptor Felipe de Castro (1711-1775); both had themselves been painted by Mengs. It is more likely, however, that the picture was originally owned by de Castro. Roettgen, loc. cit., notes that whilst in the Schneider collection the frame identified the sitter as de Castro; however, comparison with the engraving after his portrait by Mengs makes this improbable (ibid., p. 270, no. 199, illustrated).
Uhde-Bernays, loc. cit., believed the portrait to be of Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717-1768), although he gave no specific reasons for his opinion; Singer (1938) raised doubts over this, and, although Weingartner (1961/2) thought the identification possible, Honisch (1965) rejected it. Certainly comparison with Mengs' portrait of Winckelmann in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. no. 48-141), shows few physiognomical similarities. Nonetheless, in the latest catalogue of the Hermitage (1987), the portrait remains identified as Winckelmann, despite continuing doubts raised in the catalogue of the 1981 Mengs exhibition in St. Petersburg.
Honisch dated the Hermitage portrait, and consequently the present study, to the later 1650s, a date supported by the Van Dyck collar, a caprice generally associated with pictures of that decade. Roettgen compares the finished portrait to those of Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond (The Earl of March, Goodwood House) and of Robert Wood (Duke of Sutherland, Roxburghshire). As noted by Roettgen, this dating is further supported by a copy of the sketch, by Martin Knoller (Milan, Civica Galleria d'Arte Moderna), painted directly from the sketch whilst in Mengs' studio. Knoller was in Rome in 1755-1758 and 1760-1765, but probably saw the study during his first stay in Rome, when he had very close contacts with Mengs.
According to Uhde-Bernays, loc. cit., the picture came from the collection of José Nicolas de Azara, Marchese di Nibbiano (1730-1804), whence it passed into the collection of the Spanish sculptor Felipe de Castro (1711-1775); both had themselves been painted by Mengs. It is more likely, however, that the picture was originally owned by de Castro. Roettgen, loc. cit., notes that whilst in the Schneider collection the frame identified the sitter as de Castro; however, comparison with the engraving after his portrait by Mengs makes this improbable (ibid., p. 270, no. 199, illustrated).
Uhde-Bernays, loc. cit., believed the portrait to be of Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717-1768), although he gave no specific reasons for his opinion; Singer (1938) raised doubts over this, and, although Weingartner (1961/2) thought the identification possible, Honisch (1965) rejected it. Certainly comparison with Mengs' portrait of Winckelmann in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. no. 48-141), shows few physiognomical similarities. Nonetheless, in the latest catalogue of the Hermitage (1987), the portrait remains identified as Winckelmann, despite continuing doubts raised in the catalogue of the 1981 Mengs exhibition in St. Petersburg.
Honisch dated the Hermitage portrait, and consequently the present study, to the later 1650s, a date supported by the Van Dyck collar, a caprice generally associated with pictures of that decade. Roettgen compares the finished portrait to those of Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond (The Earl of March, Goodwood House) and of Robert Wood (Duke of Sutherland, Roxburghshire). As noted by Roettgen, this dating is further supported by a copy of the sketch, by Martin Knoller (Milan, Civica Galleria d'Arte Moderna), painted directly from the sketch whilst in Mengs' studio. Knoller was in Rome in 1755-1758 and 1760-1765, but probably saw the study during his first stay in Rome, when he had very close contacts with Mengs.