Medaillon met portret van Kasimire von Lippe-Detmold

About this artwork

Prent gebruikt voor: Chapon, Gottlob Friedrich Wilhelm. Leben und letzte Stunden der weiland Durchlauchtigsten Fürstinn Casimire (...). Lemgo: Meyersche Hofbuchhandlung, 1780.

Art Historical Context

Daniel Nikolaus Chodowie, a prolific German engraver and illustrator of the late 18th century, captures the dignified likeness of Princess Casimire Lippe-Detmold in this intimate etching from 1780. Rendered in a compact medallion format (55mm × 70mm), the portrait exemplifies Chodowiecki's of Rococo portraiture, blending delicate line work with expressive detail to convey nobility and poise. As a leading figure in book illustration, Chodowie produced thousands of etchings that brought historical and moral narratives to life for a wide audience. This print served as a frontispiece for Gottlob Friedrich Wilhelm Chapon's biography, *Leben und letzte Stunden der weiland Durchlauchtigsten Fürstinn Casimire*, published that same year in Lemgo by Meyersche Hofbuchhandlung. The work commemorates the princess's life and final moments, reflecting the era's fascination with pious nobility and personal legacy amid the Enlightenment's introspective tone. Etching's precision allowed Chodowiecki to achieve subtle textures and shading in such a diminutive scale, making it ideal for book integration and mass dissemination. Today, this medallion highlights the intersection of portraiture and print culture, preserving a fleeting glimpse of princely life from Lippe-Detmold, a small German principality, while showcasing how art immortalized the elite in an age of biographical fervor.

About the Artist

Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki · 1726–1801

Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki (1726–1801) was a German painter and printmaker of Polish-Huguenot descent who became the most celebrated graphic artist in 18th-century Germany. Born in Danzig (now Gdańsk), he created approximately 2,000 etchings that serve as an invaluable visual record of German bourgeois life during the Enlightenment. Largely self-taught, Chodowiecki moved to Berlin in 1743 and ach...