Portret van Manuel Marti 1731 - 1748

Philippus Endlich created this print of Manuel Marti, probably in Amsterdam sometime in the first half of the 1700s. Prints like these were the mass media of their time, a way of circulating images of important people. Here, Marti is identified as Dean of the Church of Mons. The classicizing frame and cartouche lend him an aura of authority. But the proliferation of such images also served to flatten authority, making images of the powerful available for all to consume. To understand the role of this image, we have to look into the history of Dutch printmaking and the role of religious institutions in the 18th century. Prints like these were often commissioned, so we might want to look into the archives of the Church of Mons to understand more about Marti and why his image was circulated. Ultimately, the meaning of this print is contingent on its historical and institutional context.