Fotoreproductie van een geschilderd portret van Johann Sebastian Bach door Carl Jaeger before 1872

Curator: So, here we have what's described as a "Fotoreproductie van een geschilderd portret van Johann Sebastian Bach door Carl Jaeger," a photographic reproduction, made before 1872, of a painted portrait. The medium is gelatin silver print. Editor: My goodness, talk about meta! It’s a copy of a copy, and yet somehow, even through the layers of reproduction, you still feel the weight of history in this image. There's something melancholic about it, isn't there? All those shades of gray... and then he's trapped in this little ornate box inside a bigger box, a book. It's Bach in a nutshell. Curator: It does create a sense of historical distance, framing him in a way that speaks to the formal portraiture conventions of the 19th century, which heavily romanticized the past. And reproductions like these helped cement a certain kind of image of Bach, as this almost mythic figure. It’s also an interesting statement on art and its availability to the masses – this print brings Bach into parlors where an original portrait would never go. Editor: You put it so academically! I think I love this object exactly BECAUSE it is so many times removed! It takes the original subject into the realm of something else entirely. He transcends and diffuses... he IS everywhere at once, like his music! Do you think Herr Bach ever imagined being quite so reproduced and framed? He must have just been doing the music because he had to, you know? Curator: Doubtful he considered the ramifications of reproducible imagery on his legacy, but one could argue his own careful archiving of his compositions shows some foresight. And that's precisely what's intriguing. It demonstrates how the public's perception of even monumental historical figures like Bach gets continuously reshaped through layers of reproduction, interpretation, and dissemination. His genius becomes almost secondary to this symbolic presence in popular imagination. Editor: It makes one think about all of us, what aspects will linger from this modern existence? And in what crazy mediums, huh? I suppose Herr Bach has landed quite well in our era of endless streaming and social reproduction. Thanks for pointing out what that image is doing inside all that framing, not just sitting there playing harpsichord for royalty.