Angelika Kauffmann was already a celebrated painter throughout Europe in her time. Among the patrons of the worldly and self-assured artist were crowned heads such as Emperor Joseph II and Empress Catherine II, intellectuals including Winckelmann and Goethe, diplomats, and scholars. Many of her works, whether admired portraits or paintings with literary, mythological, and religious themes, achieved an unprecedented level of dissemination as engravings.