12 Portrætter (Rom 1825) 1825

Editor: We're looking at "12 Porträtter (Rom 1825)," an etching from 1825 by Ernst Meyer. It’s a collection of profile portraits, twelve in all, arranged in two rows. It almost feels like looking into a curious window to the past… a very serious past! What's your take on it? Curator: A window, yes, but maybe into a salon rather than just a past. Meyer has given us access to a social sphere. The regularity of the portraits hints at a scientific or even phrenological impulse, while the gathering of the figures brings it squarely into a social setting. Each line seems a study, etched with deliberate care... I wonder who *they* were and what their stories were at the time Meyer immortalized them! Editor: Phrenological impulse? You mean like trying to read character through their features? Curator: Precisely! It was a popular, though flawed, idea. But notice how Meyer doesn't offer us full faces, just the curves of their profiles. We can read what *we* wish into these curves, perhaps as much fantasy as "science," and is there more to these people than their “curves?” Maybe not, if Meyer’s intent was aligned with then-current social thought... or did he add to it?! Editor: I didn't catch that at first! So it's both art and maybe a little… pseudo-science? All rolled into one print. Amazing. Curator: Isn’t it though? Art always holds up a mirror, doesn't it, whether to society's beliefs or just to our own curiosities. The Romantics were a complex bunch, indeed. Editor: Definitely gives you a lot to think about; it seems that their intentions remain open to interpretation. Thanks so much for sharing this perspective!