Two Portrait Miniatures – Moses Mendelssohn and Gotthold Ephraim Lessing – Germany, Late 18th Century

Two Portrait Miniatures – Moses Mendelssohn and Gotthold Ephraim Lessing – Germany, Late 18th Century
Two portrait miniatures – Moses Mendelssohn and Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. [Germany?, ca. late 18th century].
The portraits were painted in gouache, after engravings by Johann Friedrich Bause, printed in 1772 (engravings after oil paintings by Anton Graff). Lessing and Mendelssohn's names are handwritten on verso of the portrait's frames; beneath Mendelssohn's name is a short biography (German).
A strong, long-standing friendship prevailed between Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786), a pioneer of the Haskalah [Enlightenment] movement, and Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781), one of the most important German playwrights of the Enlightenment era. Lessing introduced Mendelssohn to his circle of intellectuals, their discourse initially yielding the joint composition "Pope a Metaphysician" ("Pope ein Metaphysiker!", 1755) and soon motivating Mendelssohn to start publishing his philosophical work. In his writings, Lessing argued against prejudice and for religious tolerance and the reign of reason, and through his close friendship with Mendelssohn practiced what he preached, unlike many of his contemporaries. Lessing wished to undermine the popular negative image of the Jews and put in the center of one of his first plays, "The Jews", a character of a decent, exemplary and moral Jew. His later play "Nathan the Wise", inspired by Mendelssohn, likewise depicts the character of a Jewish merchant as an intelligent and noble person.
Portrait miniatures originated in illuminated manuscripts. In the 15th century, artists started producing miniature portraits as independent items. Initially, these artists worked in royal courts, yet soon the custom of commissioning miniature portraits of family members and kings, politicians and intellectuals spread to the upper and lower nobility and eventually to the bourgeoisie as well. Miniature portraits of family members and loved ones were set in lockets and watches to be cherished and remembered; portraits of dignitaries and famous persons were elaborately framed and prominently displayed. The 18th century was the golden age of the portrait miniatures. Many miniature artists continued to work in Europe and its colonies during the first half of the 19th century; however, with the invention of photography in the mid-19th century, the demand for them ebbed and eventually stopped altogether.
Portraits: approx. 11X10 cm, in approx. 13.5X15.5 cm frames. Good overall condition. Minor blemishes to portraits. Dampstain to Mendelssohn's portrait. Damaged frames, with fractures and losses (in the wood and the glass) and glue repairs. The paper on verso of Lessing's portrait is torn and partly detached. Mendelssohn's portrait has not been examined outside the frame.