Laughing Man with Saumagen (Stuffed Pork Stomach) Christian Seybold

Christian Seybold, who was of German origin but worked in Vienna, was one of the most significant masters of eighteenth-century bourgeois portraiture, as his monographer aptly notes, “a Rembrandt between the Danube and the Elbe”. The genre portraits with their special atmosphere, to which this work also belongs, played an important role in his work. ln addition to the model’s cheerful character, light-hearted manner, naughty laugh and casual attire, the brawn in his hand is also a striking element, being surprising and defiantly commonplace at the same time. According to some speculations, the model may have been Gottfried Prehauser, an Austrian actor and comedian, who became known in the comic role of Hanswurst (Hans Wurst = John Sausage).