Kirsten K. Lassen 1767 - 1824

Andreas Flint created this portrait of Kirsten K. Lassen using engraving techniques. The sitter's headwear immediately draws us in, a bonnet with ribbons that speaks of modesty but also adornment. Consider how such head coverings have appeared across cultures: the veils of the Middle Ages, the wimples of nuns, each subtly shifting in meaning yet serving similar functions of presentation and concealment. Think of Botticelli's Venus, her flowing hair a sign of her unbound sensuality, and contrast it with the tightly bound hair in portraits of virtuous Roman women. The bonnet here, though less overt, is part of this visual language. This careful balance—between revealing and concealing, between freedom and restraint—reflects the complex psychological terrain of portraiture. These symbols reappear, transformed yet still resonant, in our modern garments and adornments. Each era reinterprets the visual vocabulary of the past, creating a non-linear, cyclical progression.