Pleisterkopie met muziek makende putti c. 1850

Eduard Isaac Asser created this plaster cast copy of a sculpture with music-making putti sometime in the nineteenth century. Asser was not only a pioneering photographer but also a lawyer and writer, deeply embedded in Amsterdam's intellectual circles. This photograph, with its almost ghostly figures, invites us to consider the cultural values embedded in classical forms and how they were disseminated through reproductions like this. The putti, or cherubic figures, evoke notions of innocence, beauty, and harmony, ideals that were central to the era's aesthetic and moral sensibilities. However, it's also important to consider how these ideals might exclude other forms of beauty or expressions of humanity. In a society marked by rigid class structures and racial hierarchies, who had access to these ideals and who was excluded? The somewhat ethereal quality of the photograph itself might suggest the elusiveness of these ideals, or perhaps a longing for a world where such harmony could exist.