Graf van Maria Magdalena Langhans in de kerk van Hindelbank 1786

This print, made by Christian von Mechel, depicts the tomb of Maria Magdalena Langhans. She was the wife of a pastor who died in 1751, not long after childbirth. Her husband was so grieved that he commissioned a memorial to her, carved by Johann August Nahl, in the church at Hindelbank, near Bern, Switzerland. In the print, we see the tomb represented as if breaking through the surface of the page. It shows a figure, presumably Langhans, ascending to heaven with a child reaching up towards her. This was a time when the social status of women was closely tied to their roles as wives and mothers. The tragedy of her death in childbirth would have been especially poignant. Prints like this one played an important role in disseminating images of artworks to a wider audience beyond those who could visit Hindelbank. To better understand the history and significance of this tomb, we can consult church records, biographies of the Langhans family, and art historical scholarship on Nahl. In this way, we come to see the memorial as bound up with social, religious and artistic life in 18th-century Switzerland.