Portret van Joseph Anton van Schönberg 1715 - 1797

Curator: Up next, we have a printed portrait of Joseph Anton van Schönberg. It’s attributed to Johann Joseph Zimmermann the Younger, made sometime between 1715 and 1797. Editor: It has an old world formality to it. The crispness of the line work reminds me of something you'd see printed in a really fancy book from ages ago. Almost intimidating, if I'm honest. Curator: That formality aligns perfectly with its context. As a print, this would have been accessible to a wider audience than a painted portrait. Think of it as a visual statement of Schönberg's status, circulating through society. Editor: I can almost imagine him agreeing to it, adjusting his powdered wig so as to have just the right amount of volume... you know, ensuring history sees him as stately and dignified, of course! Curator: Precisely. The oval frame, the heraldic symbols below – these are all deliberate choices meant to project an image of authority and lineage. Prints like these played a crucial role in shaping public perception and reinforcing social hierarchies. It's interesting how artists worked within these expectations and visual codes. Editor: Even now, there's a sense of careful staging, but he feels a bit more like a person than a symbol. I mean he isn't just this grand emblem. He actually lived and fretted and worried over which wig was juuuust right for this sort of image making. Curator: Right. It speaks volumes about how art, even seemingly simple portraits like this, engaged with the politics of representation and the construction of identity in the 18th century. Editor: Yes, beneath the elaborate wigs and formal trappings, are complex lives trying to come to terms with how they want to be perceived now, and far into the future. I love it. Curator: A compelling reminder that even these formalized representations give us insights into the era's values and the public life of a historical figure.