The Fama unrolls the portrait of a man before Apollo and Truth, ca. 1745

About the Work

Simon Fokke, a prolific designer and engraver of book illustrations, designed the portraits of Baron von Canitz and his wife Dorothea (Inv.-Nr. 3642) for a Berlin publishing house. In the form of printed reproductions, they were to adorn an edition of works by that well-known Baroque poet and Prussian diplomat, who had died in 1699. The complicated and rather flamboyant Baroque iconography had been specified by the publishers. In Fokke’s drawings and the engravings based on them, it takes on a buoyant elegance.