preview

History of Portraiture Essay example

Decent Essays

History of Portraiture

Portraiture is a visual representation of an individual people, distinguished by references to the subject's character, social position, wealth, or profession.

Portraitists often strive for exact visual likenesses. However, although the viewer's correct identification of the sitter is of primary importance, exact replication is not always the goal. Artists may intentionally alter the appearance of their subjects by embellishing or refining their images to emphasize or minimize particular qualities (physical, psychological, or social) of the subject. Viewers sometimes praise most highly those images that seem to look very little like the sitter because these images are …show more content…

The Romans were expert in rendering individuals. Some scholars have argued that it was the practice of making and keeping death masks of ancestors (worn by survivors in the funeral processions) that accounts for the enormous skill with which Roman portraitists captured the individuality of their subjects. Many portrait busts survive, including images of Roman rulers as well as poignant representations of aged citizens. Especially noteworthy are the mummy portraits from the region of Al Fayyūm in Egypt. Painted during the 2nd century ad, these portraits depict individuals who stare wide-eyed at the viewer. These slightly simplified representations of staring subjects anticipate the severity and frontal orientation of early medieval portraits.

The Renaissance marked a turning point in the history of portraiture. Partly out of interest in the natural world and partly out of interest in the classical cultures of ancient Greece and Rome, portraits—both painted and sculpted—were given an important role in Renaissance society.

In the Netherlands, Jan van Eyck was a leading portraitist; The Arnolfini Marriage (1434, National Gallery, London) is a detailed full-length portrait of a couple. Leading German portrait artists include Hans Holbein the Younger and Albrecht Dürer.

During the baroque and rococo periods (17th century and 18th century, respectively),

Get Access