Portret van Michael Christian Rusmeyer 1738

Curator: Oh, there's a fascinating print—a portrait of Michael Christian Rusmeyer. It's an engraving crafted in 1738 by Johann Martin Bernigeroth, and it resides in the Rijksmuseum. Editor: My first impression is...academic, for sure! Stately, yet there’s also something kind about the face in that tightly framed oval. A bit trapped, maybe, like a butterfly pinned down with that ruff. Curator: Trapped is an interesting take! I see that collar as a signifier of status, almost armour. It emphasizes his role as a Doctor and Professor. Bernigeroth captured that quite directly, wouldn't you agree? The formality of the Baroque. Editor: Of course, the period screams status, literally, with every powdered curl, but symbols can be deceiving, no? The circle suggests containment, while the repeating lines behind the oval gives a claustrophobic feeling. Think how restrictive those high collars must have been! How could this academic freely breathe? Curator: Well, yes, that is very insightful, perhaps that the very structures that enable knowledge can at times feel constraining. Though in art, aren't we always balancing liberation with convention? But still I’m captivated by how Bernigeroth managed to suggest character with such rigid graphic techniques. The man seems…thoughtful? Editor: Perhaps Bernigeroth hoped for posterity, too, as a creator? I can also imagine a time when these prints might’ve flown off the printing press; a new kind of cultural symbol – available to all! It is interesting to contemplate all those symbols moving between culture, commerce, and mind. Curator: The act of endless visual reproduction – almost spiritual, like copies of religious icons made and venerated en masse. Something I am going to contemplate further, in my case I shall keep questioning the relationship between freedom, academia, and those imposing collars. Editor: While I ponder what our present era academics will think of their symbolic portrait, should such a thing be created. Will there still be the desire to define their character using the visual cues of the Baroque age? It seems, for me, that the wheel turns, but never the need.