Gertrud Iserberg 1654 - 1687

This engraving of Gertrud Iserberg was made by Hubert Schaten, a late 17th-century artist, and is now held at the Statens Museum for Kunst. The visual experience here is dominated by the ornate, symmetrical composition. Iserberg is framed by an oval laurel wreath. This structure, combined with the symmetry, speaks to a desire for order and idealization. The controlled lines of the engraving contribute to a formal, almost stoic, representation. The subject is elevated, yet the use of dense, repetitive lines, particularly in the background, could be read as a form of visual constraint, reflecting the societal structures of the time. The poem beneath the portrait suggests a blending of artistic skill and truth, but the very act of framing and idealizing a subject inevitably creates a constructed reality. The tight framing and detailed rendering of texture create a tension between surface and depth, hinting at the complexities that lie beneath the surface of representation.