St. Joseph’s Dream

In the classic thinker’s pose, his head leaning heavily on his arm, Joseph receives instructions from God whilst asleep: he is to lead into Egypt Mary and the Infant Jesus, to escape Herod’s henchmen. The clear composition, the frontal depiction which emphasises contours, the unemotional representation all show the classicist painter as overcoming the Baroque art of illusion and staging. While Mengs in his drive to innovate starts out from antiquity and Raphael, there is also an echo of Correggio’s sfumato painting in the soft sensualism of his pictures.