Portret van Johann Karl Wezel 1757 - 1803

Christian Gottlieb Geyser etched this portrait of Johann Karl Wezel, capturing the profile of a man framed in an oval. The profile, an ancient form, takes us back to Roman coins and busts, where emperors gazed eternally to the side. This symbolic detachment allowed the ruler to be both present and aloof, a god among men. Yet, here, in Wezel's portrait, we see a softening of this once mighty symbol. The oval frame, reminiscent of Renaissance medallions, domesticates the imperial profile. It shrinks the world of heroes to the scale of the enlightened bourgeois. This echoes in the way the profile became a symbol of enlightenment, adorning books and scientific treatises. The profile has traveled through time. It resurfaces, transformed, a testament to culture and memory, echoing through epochs.