Franz Anton Maulbertsch

Franz Anton Maulbertsch was a prominent Austrian painter, considered arguably the greatest painter of the 18th century in Central Europe. His work is characterized by brilliant fresco cycles, often found in Bohemia, Moravia, and northern Hungary. Maulbertsch's religious scenes convey mystical intensity, while his secular subjects exhibit joyous abandon. His later works, such as frescoes at Strahov, Prague, show the emerging influence of Neoclassicism on Austrian painters. Maulbertsch's style represents a triumphant closing chapter of 18th-century Central European painting, firmly rooted in the Baroque tradition.1