Spanish school, follower of ANTON RAPHAEL MENGS (Aussig, Bohemia, 1728-Rome, 1779); c. 1780. "Charles IV as Prince of Asturias". Oil on canvas. Re-framed. It has a 20th century frame, following the style of Charles IV. Measurements: 68,5 x 51 cm; 80 x 61 cm (frame). This work of oval format follows the aesthetic precepts developed by Mengs, in the work "Prince of Asturias, future Charles IV", which belongs to the collection of the Prado Museum in Madrid. In this case the oval format limits the image depicted by Mengs, showing only a long bust portrait, avoiding the landscape and concentrating the scene on the monarch's face. However, among the similarities, we can highlight a paragraph from the website of the Museum's catalogue: "With a fair complexion, light eyes, a large, drooping nose and jutting jaw, the prince wears a white wig, is dressed in a field dress with bark-coloured coat and breeches, a suede jacket with gold buttons and gold braid, and wears high black boots. He has the bands of the orders of San Gennaro (red) and Saint Esprit (blue) crossed, and the insignia of the Golden Fleece is pinned to his coat, with a silver cross, presumably the Neapolitan cross of San Gennaro, sewn on it. The work is notable for the naturalness with which the effigy of the monarch is portrayed, slightly turned, but with his face turned towards the viewer, with a slight smile on his face, which he communicates to the viewer. Thus showing a close and affable personality, addressed to his subjects, and at the same time defining the artist's own traits of psychological portraiture. A painter and theorist of Neoclassicism, Anton Raphael Mengs was trained in both the practical aspects of painting and the theory of art under the influence of Winckelmann, whose friend and outstanding pupil he was. He trained in Dresden under his father, Ismael Mengs, a court painter. Later, between 7141 and 1744, he travelled to Rome to further his training with Marco Benefial, studying in particular ancient sculpture and the paintings of Raphael and the 17th-century classicists. In 1744 he returned to Dresden and was appointed court painter, where he devoted himself chiefly to portraiture. In 1746 he was appointed painter to King Augustus III of Poland and subsequently undertook a tour of Italy, ending in Rome, where he settled permanently. In the Italian capital he executed important religious and mythological works in fresco, displaying a mature, clearly neoclassical style influenced by the Renaissance and, more specifically, by the work of Raphael. In 1761 he was recalled to Spain, where he remained until 1769 as the first painter to King Charles III. For him he painted works to decorate the Royal Palace and the Aranjuez Palace, as well as important portraits. His presence in Madrid definitively pushed Tiepolo into a corner, as Mengs represented a new taste that was widely accepted at court. Although he later returned to Rome, he visited the Spanish court again between 1774 and 1776, shortly before contracting the illness that led to his death in Italy in 1779. Works by Mengs are now in the Museo del Prado, the Louvre in Paris, the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg, the Metropolitan in New York, the National Gallery and the Royal Collection in London, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Albertina in Vienna and other leading art galleries in Europe and the United States. Dimensions 68.5 x 51 cm; 80 x 61 cm (frame).