Portret van Karl Mastalier 1752 - 1795

This is a portrait of Karl Mastalier by Christian Gottlieb Geyser, an etching made in an unrecorded year. The portrait is a product of its time, reflective of the late 18th-century enthusiasm for Enlightenment ideals. The very act of memorializing Mastalier through art elevates him within the social hierarchy. The laurel wreath, reminiscent of classical antiquity, is a visual cue that links him to ideas of virtue, wisdom and triumph, conferring a kind of secular sainthood. Engravings like these were relatively cheap to produce and became popular ways to distribute images and information. By studying these images and their distribution, along with archival materials about the artist and sitter, we can learn about the social networks and power structures of the period. The historian can help us understand that the meaning of art is never fixed, but always contingent on social and institutional contexts.