This painting is one of Mengs’ earliest works, and his very first of life-size figures in oil. It was executed during the artist's second trip to Rome in 1746-49, and early sources record the high praise that it elicited from the city's elite, as the first canvas he exhibited publicly there, asserting himself as the foremost successor to Raphael and precursor of what would come to be known as Neoclassicism.
Mengs’ debt to Raphael here should undoubtedly be regarded in direct relation to the tastes and direction of his patron, Frederick Augustus, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony (1696-1763), who had sent the artist to Rome specifically to study the work of that master, and to develop his œuvre of portraiture to include history and religious painting. In the composition of the present work Mengs consciously looked to Raphael's Holy Family (Musée du Louvre, Paris; fig. 1),1 which Augustus is known to have admired, specifically for the poses of the Madonna and Saint Joseph, and to the Renaissance master's Madonna del Divino Amore (Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples),2 which Mengs had copied during his first stay in Rome, for the figure of the Infant Saint John and the head of Elizabeth.
A letter of 29 July 1761 from the painter and art dealer Thomas Jenkins to Sir Henry Hoare relates the early history of the painting: 'I purchased every thing I possibly could from Mr Mengs before he left Rome and I am now master of his finest work, being if I may be allowed the expression, his Price Picture, it is the Holy family that he painted for the King of Poland and on account of a few Cracks in it occasioned by an uncommon body of Colour least it should displease the Court, he intends to paint the same Subject over again the King pays him 700 Zecchins, I got this for half Price.'3 It was purchased not long afterwards by William Weddell, who acquired a large proportion of Jenkins’ collects ion of antiquities when he visited him in Rome in 1765-66.4
Mengs did indeed paint a second version of the painting for Frederick Augustus, but it never came into his possession and was instead bought from the artist’s estate by Catherine the Great of Russia (1729-96); it is now in the Pavlovsk Palace, St Petersburg.5 The primacy of the present painting is presumed from Jenkins' detailed description of its state of preservation, due to the thick application of oils, resulting in craquelure that evidently formed at an early date (also reflecting Mengs' lack of experience in this medium, having previously specialised in pastel portraits). The features of the Madonna here also identify this painting as the first version, since they bear a marked resemblance to those of Margherita Guazzi - as noted by Mengs' biographer, Bianconi, in 1780 - who sat for Mengs and became his wife in that same year, 1749. The Madonna's face in the Pavlovsk picture, by contrast, is a more generic idealisation.
There are several related preparatory works: a design sketch for the composition is in the Cabinet des Dessins, Musée du Louvre, Paris (fig. 2);6 a detailed chalk study for the head of Saint Elizabeth is in the Albertina, Vienna (fig. 3);7 and a cartoon of the painting (presumably made for the execution of the second version), now lost, was likewise purchased by Catherine the Great.
1 https://collects ions.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010060752
2 https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/the-madonna-of-the-divine-love-raphael/mQGLlpX6ULeonw
3 Trowhill/Wiltshire, Stourhead-Archiv, Nr. 383/907
4 Subsequent possible sales, where the painting is described merely as 'Holy Family' by Mengs, and is not identifiable with the present work beyond doubt, are as follows:
John Mayhew (1736-1811), London;
His posthumous sale, London, Christie's, 22 May 1812, lot 38, for £2-17s. to William Blackford;
Anonymous sale ('A Gentleman of Distinction'), London, Smallbone, 25 July 1823, lot 21, for £24-10s.;
With Pierre-Joseph Lafontaine, Paris;
His sale, London, Phillips, 7 May 1824, lot 35, for £27-6s.
5 That painting has somet.mes s been attributed to Mengs’ pupil Anton Van Maron, but is attributed to Mengs in full by Roettgen; see Roettgen 1999, pp. 81-82, cat. no. 47, reproduced.