ABSTRACT
In the autumn of 1805, Anna Amalia commissioned court painter Ferdinand Jagemann, student of Weimar's Freien Zeichenschule and son of her librarian, Christian Joseph Jagemann, to produce an oil portrait to hang in the library. Anna Amalia's portrait would have hung at the head of the Rokokosaal, visible as one entered the heart of the library. Her portrait as the Minerva of Weimar reigned over the library; she is depicted as the producer of knowledge through her collection of books, musical scores and prints purchased for the library. Anna Amalia's role as good mother was praised by Johann Georg Wille, who in 1781 dedicated his print Les Delices Maternelles to Anna Amalia. Her print collection is evidence of her networking within Central Europe; her active involvement in eighteenth-century cultural politics would benefit her son and later generations. Jagemann's portrait highlighted Anna Amalia's masculine self-fashioning and development of the library.
