Portret van Friedrich Gustav Finckler 1744

This is a portrait of Friedrich Gustav Finckler made by Georg Martin Preissler as an engraving. The trappings of power and prestige are all here: the learned-looking book, the classical column, and of course the elaborate wig and clothing appropriate to a man of his station. It was made in the German lands sometime in the 18th century. Finckler served as a city judge in Nuremberg, and in the image, the material markers of his high social status act as a testament to the institutional structures of the time. It makes sense that the artist would try to represent the social and cultural identity of the portrayed in a way that is consistent with the politics and ideology of the ruling classes. To properly understand a work such as this, we can investigate its subject in local archives and in genealogical records. This will help to uncover the economic conditions that allowed for the production of such images and what specific institutions, such as the courts, were being represented. In so doing, we can come to appreciate how this artwork is contingent on its social and institutional context.