"Frederick Christian, Prince of Saxony" pencil

Graphite and wood. 18 cm

This beautiful pencil reproduces a detail from the portrait of Frederick Christian, Prince of Saxony (1751), in which the man is wearing sumptuous antique steel armor with gold trim and red velvet lining. Mengs combined different textures and colored surfaces to create an exciting display of contrasts and alternations, added to an iconographic display to give the subject the appropriate majesty.