Portret van Caspar Heunisch 1677 - 1720

This is Johann Alexander Böner's "Portret van Caspar Heunisch," made with etching, sometime around the late 17th or early 18th century. Notice how the portrait is meticulously framed by an oval border, filled with text. The composition immediately draws our attention to the sitter's face, framed by long hair and a modest mustache. The artist’s use of line is particularly striking, creating texture and form through hatching. The sitter holds a small book, perhaps a symbol of knowledge or faith, suggesting intellectual depth. Böner is playing with the idea of representation, as much as portraiture is about capturing a likeness, it is also about constructing an image that embodies certain virtues or qualities. The formal structure of the artwork, the frame, the text, the pose, and the symbolic elements, all function as signs within a larger cultural discourse. The artist invites us to consider the interplay between appearance and essence, representation and reality, challenging us to look beyond the surface.