| Artist | |
|---|---|
| Culture | Austrian |
| Date | ca. 1760 |
| Object type | painting |
| Medium, technique | oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 126.5 × 154.5 cm |
| Inventory number | 470 |
| Collection | Old Master Paintings |
| On view | Museum of Fine Arts, Second Floor, European Art 1700-1850, Gallery XXIX |
This grisaille painting of the Holy Family depicted in shades of brown entered the possession of the Esterházy princes in 1815 as a work by the neoclassicist star painter Anton Raphael Mengs. However, it was later attributed not to Mengs but to his pupil and brother-in-law, Anton von Maron. The picture was made as a modello for the painting Cardinal Scipione Borghese (1734-1782) commissioned from Maron for his private chapel in the Palazzo Borghese. lt was purchased by the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, in 2021.
The arrangement and size of the figures are exactly the same in the two paintings, while in the final version the draperies are rendered more freely. The artist also altered some details: for example, in the modello, Saint Joseph has a shaved face, while wears a beard in the finished painting.
Pigler, Andor, Katalog der Galerie Alter Meister, 1-2. Museum der Bildenden Künste, Szépművészeti Múzeum, Budapest. 2, Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 1967, p. 440.
This record is subject to revision due to ongoing research.
