Article:

Porträtmedaillons: Vom Öffnen und Schließen klappbarer Bildträger

This article examines a special type of images that is not only representative in the sense of depicting a person but also has symbolic importance: the portrait miniature. Attached to the body, these small pieces of jewelry are objects that must be opened by hinges to make their pictures visible. Using the example of the Heneage Jewel, an English Renaissance pendant, my paper describes the potential of the social networking that portraits can provide when they operate as connections between the medallions and their owners as well as between the representation and the represented. By studying those objects, the article addresses finally the aspect of the mutual attachment. In this context, the ques-tion of occupation gains importance by which the attachment of subjects to objects and vice versa is concerned.