Der Fähnrich (in altdeutscher Tracht) 

Here in the Städel Museum is a drawing by Friedrich Moosbrugger titled "The Ensign in Old German Costume". The figure, rendered in delicate strokes, displays a curious tension between historical romanticism and formal abstraction. The costume, with its puffed sleeves and feathered cap, speaks to a historicism prevalent in early 19th-century German art. But, the careful attention to line and form supersedes a mere depiction of historical garb. Observe how Moosbrugger uses hatching and cross-hatching to model the figure. This creates a semiotic play between depth and flatness, volume and void, inviting us to deconstruct the structure of representation itself. The flag, devoid of explicit symbolism, becomes a signifier of form rather than content, destabilizing traditional notions of heraldry and national identity. It is this tension between historical referent and formal abstraction that fascinates. The drawing, in its engagement with historical representation, reveals its own constructed nature. It invites continual re-evaluation of how art mediates history, identity, and the very act of seeing.