Man die het moderne minacht 1771 - 1823

Karl Heinrich Grünler created this print, "Man die het moderne minacht," sometime in the late 18th or early 19th century. The image depicts a man who scorns modernity; he is a relic from the past. Grünler was German but spent much of his life in the Netherlands. This etching is typical of the kind of satirical prints that were popular at the time, especially in the Netherlands, and were closely associated with the political ideas of the Enlightenment. The man is dressed in old-fashioned clothes, his face is contorted into a sneer, and he gestures dismissively. He is everything that the progressive thinkers of the Enlightenment were against: tradition, ignorance, and prejudice. He looks like an aristocrat clinging to the past. To understand this print better, we can look at books, newspapers, and pamphlets from the period. We can also look at the history of printmaking and the role it played in shaping public opinion. Art like this is part of the story of how societies change and how new ideas take hold.