Cast iron plaque Beethoven profile relief 19th century

Rectangular cast iron plaque showing the profile of Ludwig van Beethoven in high relief, turned to the right. The head shows the full, swept-back wavy hair, the heavy forehead and the strong chin that shape the nineteenth-century image of the composer, with a high collar and cravat at the chest. A cast letter B sits in the lower right corner. On the reverse the profile reads as a hollow negative, pointing to a thin-walled cast plate, with a cast loop for hanging.

Cast iron relief portraits of this kind were made during the nineteenth century after busts and life masks, at a time when Beethoven had become the emblem of romantic artisthood. The iron carries a copper-toned finish on the face that catches the light on the raised passages and glows warmly where it has worn, while the reverse shows the rough sand-cast surface with the marks of age. The profile follows the established iconography in which the high forehead and the wild mass of hair became the fixed marks of Beethoven's likeness.