Maria Josefa de Lorena, Archduchess of Austria

Maria Josefa de Lorena, Archduchess of Austria, was a daughter of Emperor Francis I and Maria Theresa and thus a member of the Habsburg dynasty's central generation. She was betrothed to Ferdinand IV of Naples but died of smallpox in 1767 before the marriage took place. Mengs's portrait of her in 1767—now in the Museo del Prado—may have been commissioned in connection with the planned marriage, making it a diplomatic instrument in the dynastic alliance between the Habsburgs and the Neapolitan Bourbons. Her death shortly after the portrait was painted gives it a retrospective quality as a memorial image of a life cut short. The work belongs to the broader series of Habsburg portraits Mengs executed for the Spanish Bourbon court, demonstrating his role as a painter whose services served the political and dynastic requirements of the entire Catholic European order.

Oil on canvas with the formal compositional requirements of a dynastic marriage portrait—court dress, jewellery, and bearing all precisely rendered to communicate the sitter's rank and suitability as a royal consort. Mengs's smooth, controlled technique gives the portrait the objective authority appropriate to its diplomatic function.