Friedrich II en Voltaire redden het blijspel uit het vuur
Medium
etching
Dimensions
63; 124
About this artwork
ets; proefdruk
Art Historical Context
Step into the Enlightenment era with Daniel Nikolaus Chodowie's etching *Friedrich II en Voltaireen het blijspel uit het vuur* (1788), a diminutive yet dynamic proof print measuring just 124mm by 63mm. This intricate work captures Prussian King Frederick II (Frederick the Great) and philosopher Voltaire in a heroic moment, rescuing a comedy manuscript—"blijspel" in Dutch—from flames. Chodowiecki, a prolific German Rococo printmaker renowned for his vivid illustrations of literature and daily life, masterfully condenses drama into miniature scale. The scene nods to the real-life camaraderie be...
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...