Buzási Enikő szerk.: In Europe' Princely Courts, Ádám Mányoki, Actors and venues of a portraitist's career (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 2003/1)

Harald Marx: "THE LUCKY STAR OF PAINTING HAS RISEN" Painting and Art Patronage in Dresden under Augustus the Strong and Augustus III

Festivities on the occasion of the marriage in 1719 of the prince elector of Saxony, Frederick Augustus, later King Augustus III, to Maria Josepha, daughter of Emperor Joseph I. Engraving Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Kupferstichkabinett the grand marshal, recommended him to the attention of the late king [Augustus the Strong]. His majesty called him to Warsaw in 1713. A year later he was appointed a salaried court painter; this is still his post and he has a great reputation as an excellent colourist."

39 Having painted several portraits of the dignitaries of the Saxon and Polish courts, he took leave of Augustus the Strong and returned to Hungary via Vienna. He stayed from 1724 to 1731 but failed to find permanent employment, so he returned to Saxony in 1731, sojourning in Leipzig and Dresden. In 1738 he was again appointed court painter by Augustus III and lived in the town on the Elbe until his death in 1757. It is sometimes forgotten what a great role Mányoki played in the painting of the 'Augustan period" of Dresden. He mostly painted busts; he rendered the heads with great suggestiveness and liveliness, ignoring all decorative elements. With this reductionism Mányoki imitated the kind of portraiture that characterises the early pastels of Anton Raphael Mengs - which had a much more intensive colour scheme - and also put its stamp on several works of Anton Graff following the Seven Years' War. Although the strengthening of Italian influence in the art and music of Saxony under Augustus III, to the detriment of French influence, has often been emphasised, it cannot be denied that powerful impulses still continued to arrive from France. This is due primarily to the Saxon Count Moritz (1696-1750), who served in the French court from 1720 and as marshal of France from 1744, and to the marriage of princess Maria Josepha (1731-1771) to the heir to the French throne, Louis (1729-1765), son of Louis XV. Silvestre stayed in Dresden until 1748. Back home he painted an altarpiece for the Hofkirche in Dresden and he made his Augustus closing the temple of Janus, which, however, could not be brought to Dresden because of the Seven Years' War. In 1748 Charles Francois Hutin (1715-1776) and Pierre Hutin (died 1763) moved from Paris to the Saxon capital.

40 Applied arts also flourished in this period. The porcelain of Meissen underwent an artistic development during Augustus Ill's reign, progressing from Late Baroque chinoiserie to Rococo. Some of the valuable sets and pieces acquired political weight as diplomatic gifts. Count Heinrich Brühl ordered the largest and finest single collection ever produced in Meissen for his private use: the swan set made between 1737 and 1742.

41 Widely renowned artists such as painter Johann Gregorius Hörold (1696-1775) and pattern designer Johann Joachim Kandier (presumably 1706-1775) were employed there. Green Watteau painting was developed around 1745/47, warning that it would be an oversimplification to interpret the development of Saxon art solely as a road leading to Rome and Neoclassicism.

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