Portrait of Ferdinand IV
Portrait of Ferdinand IV is an 1759 painting by Anton Raphael Mengs, now in the National Museum of Capodimonte. It shows Ferdinand IV of the Kingdom of Naples, latter known as Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies, and was commissioned by his mother Maria Amalia of Saxony to celebrate Ferdinand's accession to the throne of Kingdom of Naples aged eight after his father Charles of Bourbon's abdicated that throne to be king of Spain. This makes it the first official painting of the new king, produced by the artist in October 1759 in around a month, though it was critiqued by the other court artists Luigi Vanvitelli, Giuseppe Bonito and Francesco Liani, who had been passed over for the commission. Mengs also produced in 1760 a second copy of the painting, which was send to Ferdinand's parents to Madrid and which is now in the Prado Museum. Visually the main difference between the two paintings is the signature on 1760 copy, located on the square tile in bottom left corner.
