Portret van Voltaire, omringd met een lauwerkrans 1751 - 1816

Curator: Well, this appears rather formal. The detail in this engraving gives the portrait of Voltaire an almost sculptural quality. Editor: You’re right. Immediately striking is the laurel wreath that both frames Voltaire and bestows upon him the aura of triumph and lasting glory. It definitely elevates the figure depicted. What can you tell me about the material process involved here? Curator: The Rijksmuseum holds this portrait of Voltaire, tellingly subtitled "omringd met een lauwerkrans"—surrounded by a laurel wreath. The artwork is credited to Reinier Vinkeles, and it exists as an engraving. While the specific context for this engraving remains ambiguous, we know that Vinkeles lived from 1741 to 1816, thus creating this piece at a moment of shifting artistic and political currents. Editor: An engraving. The level of craftsmanship in capturing the texture of fabric, hair – one can only begin to fathom the number of hours that Vinkeles invested to cut these marks. The material processes – metal plate, the cutting tools and the knowledge of how to translate an image into tiny marks must also factor into its interpretation, no? Curator: Certainly. As a portrait, it presents a specific image to its public, a curated persona. Voltaire, wreathed in laurels, claims the inheritance of classical ideals. In visual terms, we encounter the values associated with neoclassicism. It speaks of the aspirations and intellectual climate during its creation. Editor: I agree it’s potent. It also underscores how portraiture can function as a material assertion of power, a way to solidify reputation through crafted imagery intended for wide distribution, not necessarily through painting but through printmaking and reproduction, isn’t it? It is a commodity with its own logic. Curator: Precisely. That wreath, seemingly straightforward, broadcasts an idea of enduring intellectual value—but more broadly than the idea of value itself. Its continuous form and association with victory link it, visually, to cycles of power, life, and memory. The cultural weight carried in that little flourish... Editor: It makes you think about what specific qualities are valorized within that particular visual shorthand— the Enlightenment and the era that celebrated men like Voltaire – to question the cultural and material impact that they made during this particular era. Curator: And how we continue to celebrate them—or perhaps reconsider them—now. Thanks to artists like Vinkeles, who captured these images in materials meant to last, that work of consideration never truly ceases.