Portret van Theodor Heinrich Von Morawitzky 1802

Johann Michael Schramm created this portrait of Theodor Heinrich Von Morawitzky as an engraving. Theodor is portrayed in an ornate oval frame with a lyre on one side, and a laurel wreath encircling a bundle of sticks and an axe on the other. The lyre symbolizes the arts, while the laurel and axe reference Roman antiquity and signal power, victory, and justice. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, neoclassicism was popular in Europe, particularly among the elite. Its visual vocabulary reinforced the idea of a culturally superior, rational, European society, and was used to justify colonial power structures. Analyzing Theodor’s dress, the coat of arms on his person, and the institutional history of portraiture in Europe can tell us more about the socio-political context in which this image was made. This artwork is not only an image of a man, but also one of the social order.