Abstract
Silhouettes are a specific part of visual culture. They contain a certain paradox, aptly described by the Swiss writer and physiognomic Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741-1801): "The shadows of a human figure or face are the weakest, most empty but at the same time (...) the truest and most faithful images of man." the outline of human shadow is a telling value about the human person? To what extent did the Enlightenment scientists, but also the Enlightenment society in general, consider the profile to be such a characteristic feature of man that it can capture it not only in its physical but also in its mental form and nature? Already Plinius the Elder joined the emergence of silhouettes with the very beginnings of portrait painting.
The legend of the girl Corinthia, who traced the shadow of her beloved one shortly before his departure to war, became one of the sources of inspiration for the creation of silhouettes in the 18th and 19th centuries, as well as a separate theme of fine art. The silhouette can be understood as the imprint of a human being and its existence.
On the other hand, it is a matter of fixing a shadow only, so that not only is there a reference to the existence of the portrayed, but also its absence. The paper maps the transformation of silhouette reception from the end of the 18th century to the end of the 20th century and some partial themes concerning the introduction of silhouettes into the context of contemporary visual culture, such as profile portraits or the relationship of silhouettes to the beginnings of photography.