Vinget genius med en sigte 1765 - 1833

Gerhard Ludvig Lahde created this print called 'Winged Genius with a Sieve' in Denmark sometime in the late 18th or early 19th century. We see a winged figure, a classical genius or putto, operating what looks like a large sieve. The image participates in a longer history of allegorical prints in Europe. We might ask: What is being separated out here? What commentary is being made? The sieve as a symbol has a rich history. It appears in emblem books and alchemical traditions where it refers to discernment, selection, and the separation of truth from falsehood. It is possible that Lahde, who worked as a printmaker for the Danish King, is using the sieve here as a symbol of Enlightenment values, where knowledge is sifted and refined through reason and empirical observation. To understand this print more fully, we might look at Lahde's other works, the printmaking culture of the time, and the intellectual history of the Danish Enlightenment. Art history gives us the tools to see how images reflect the values of their time.