From 1778 to 1781, the Göttingen student Carl Friedrich Schubert created a personal memory album with about 200 silhouettes of important people in black ink. The first 33 pages depicted professors from the Göttingen faculties. What is remarkable about the album is that the portraits of teachers were each provided with ironic remarks on the […]
THE SILHOUETTE ALBUM CARL SCHUBERT Read More »
Albrecht von Haller expressed himself in a rather restrained fashion when confronted with the exuberant description of his profile made by Lavater. In the “Göttingischen Anzeigen” from 1776 he noted: “…I don’t quite know how Mr. L is in a position to extract a multitude of characteristics which he has, by his own conviction, identified
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In his four-volume main work “Physiognomische Fragmente zur Beförderung der Menschenkenntnis und Menschenliebe” (“Physiognomic Fragments for the Promotion of Knowledge of Human Nature and Love of Humans”) (1775-1778) Johann Caspar Lavater was interested in the relationship between appearances and the inner being of humans, and further, he also tried to abstract from the individual case
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The silhouettes also owed their popularity to their relatively simple production. Instruction books also made it possible for laypersons to engage in silhouetting. In addition, technical aids made manufacturing an almost mechanical process: a special silhouette chair helped to fix the head of the person portrayed so that the shadow was cast onto transparent paper
By the end of the 18th Century, the series of portraits of the Göttingen professors consisted of 40 paintings. In the beginning, they hung close together in the main conference hall (Konzilienhaus) of the University. The building was the scene of important decisions and served as a meeting place for the Göttingen scholars as well
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