The Immortal Author 1740 - 1797

Christian Bernhard Rode made this drawing called 'The Immortal Author' in 18th-century Germany. The image shows a man in what looks like old-fashioned clothing sitting at a desk in a book-filled room. But what does it tell us about the role of art? Well, the drawing uses visual cues like the author's wig and the piles of books to suggest that knowledge and intellectual work are important. We might ask, what kind of social conditions made this emphasis on authorship possible? Was this a time of increasing literacy, and how was that literacy tied to social class? Rode's work reflects a changing society where art, literature, and the institutions that support them, like libraries, were gaining importance. To better understand this drawing, we might consult historical records about the development of copyright laws or the changing status of writers in 18th-century Germany. It's by connecting these historical facts that we can discover the meaning of art as something embedded in a specific social and institutional context.