Vrouwenhoofd

About this artwork

Vrouwenhoofd, naar antiek voorbeeld, in pleister.

Art Historical Context

Anton Raphael Mengs’s *Vrouwenhoofd* (Woman’s Head) is a sensitive study on paper that captures the serene profile of a female figure modeled after an antique plaster cast. Created sometime during the artist’s career (1738–1779), the drawing measures 400 × 270 mm and reflects Mengs’s lifelong practice of drawing directly from classical sculpture. By working from a plaster cast rather than a living sitter, Mengs distilled the idealized proportions and calm expression prized in ancient art. Mengs, a leading voice of early Neoclassicism, believed that careful study of Greco-Roman antiquities cou...

About the Artist

Anton Raphael Mengs

Comment on works: Portraits; Religious