Portret van Frederik II de Grote, koning van Pruisen 1757

This is Jakob Conrad Back's portrait of Frederick II of Prussia. We don't know when Back made this print, but, during Frederick's long reign in the eighteenth century, printed images like this one helped to consolidate the cult of the leader. In the image, Frederick’s bearing exudes an air of enlightened absolutism. Encapsulated in an oval frame above the Prussian coat of arms and eagle, Frederick appears in his royal robes. Through such visual codes, the print performs the work of imbuing his person with the authority of the Prussian state. To understand this work better, a historian might research the production of printed images in Prussia. Or examine the court culture under Frederick. And we might also reflect on how institutions like the Prussian state used images to shape social values. The meaning of this work is therefore contingent on its social and institutional context.