Portret van Johanna Christiana Wagner 1719 - 1733

This is Johann Martin Bernigeroth’s "Portret van Johanna Christiana Wagner," made using etching. The composition immediately draws our eye to the oval portrait dominating the center, which softens the sharp rectangular architecture behind it. Bernigeroth uses stark contrasts between light and shadow which direct our gaze. The subject emerges from an inky black curtain, drawing her figure into sharp relief. To the right, a marble relief featuring an angel and another portrait provides an interesting counterpoint. This juxtaposition introduces a play of surfaces that oscillate between flatness and depth, the real and the represented. The contrast between light and shadow highlights the subject's face, drawing her features into sharp relief. This, combined with the oval frame containing her portrait, suggests a structuralist concern with enclosure and a semiotic engagement with conventional modes of display and representation. The work becomes an exploration into the dialectical relationship between illusion and reality.