Portret van Johann Friedrich, Reichsgraf von Schönberg 1741 - 1777

Curator: Here we have an engraving of Johann Friedrich, Reichsgraf von Schönberg, created sometime between 1741 and 1777, attributed to Michael Rössler. It's a rather stately portrait, wouldn’t you agree? Editor: It's remarkably... labored. All those tiny, precise lines to create shadow and depth—one can only imagine the hours, days even, involved. There is real commitment to this medium in itself! Curator: Absolutely. The level of detail Rössler achieves is impressive. And I love how the ornate frame almost mirrors the subject’s own self-importance. He seems almost entombed in his rank, no? Editor: That’s the thing; there’s an economy here. Engraving, as a reproductive medium, makes him accessible, or at least his image. It allows for mass production, wide distribution, which is itself very interesting regarding status, visibility, power—or rather their public projection and consumption. Curator: I hadn't quite thought of it that way, as democratizing image through the means of making more copies of a member of the elite. Interesting that it captures, yet simultaneously somewhat cheapens the aura of nobility. Editor: Indeed. Each print, a slightly debased echo of the original, a gesture of material dissemination that echoes, or mirrors in a dark way, the supposed generosity or beneficence of nobility… like dropping pennies into a well so people can get water. Curator: He wears a lot of pennies! What else catches your attention? Is it just the process that's drawing you in, or is there a spark of something else that it reveals? Editor: I mean, beyond the intense social coding, one could go on for hours just focusing on labor, there’s the texture created. See how the lines evoke silk, brocade, the cascade of the wig… tactile fantasies meticulously reproduced by a craftsman who may never know such luxuries themselves. And that elaborate coat of arms at the bottom-- it looks like a heavy burden. The man practically drowns in symbols! Curator: So, Rössler's rendering and replication really amplifies for you a kind of commentary about craft, labor, wealth, social rank and the price they extract? I appreciate how attentive this calls us to the process behind what we tend to view as art. Editor: Precisely. A vital reminder to look at *how* things are made, *who* makes them, and for *whom*—questions as relevant today as they were in the 18th century, eh?