Die Ordnung der Bilder

Zur Bibel-Ikonographie im Klischee-Handel der 1830er und 1840er Jahre

Abstract

Against the backdrop of European Orientalism, nineteenth-century depictions of the so-called Holy Land were reproduced with various techniques ranging from woodcut to chromolithography and were distributed in various publication formats ranging from single sheets to encyclopedias. Comparing illustrated Christian and Jewish Bible editions issued in the 1830s and 1840s by the Leipzig publisher Baumgärtner, the paper shows that the European trade with stereotypes of printing blocks (so-called »Klischees«) could in some cases lead to an alignment of different national, religious and denominational pictorial traditions. However, as the framing of pictures changed when moved to a different context, new ways of reproduction and circulation also provided ample opportunities for distinction and differentiation. Both in the Bible editions and in the popular periodicals of the time, innovations in media technology were used to regulate and manipulate the perception of pictures, implying statements about aesthetic norms, national belonging and religious beliefs.