Portrait

A portrait is a painting, photograph,

sculpture, or other artistic representation
of a person, in which the face and its
expressions are predominant. The intent
is to display the likeness, personality, and
even the mood of the person. For this
reason, in photography a portrait is
generally not a snapshot, but a
composed image of a person in a still
position. A portrait often shows a person
looking directly at the painter or
photographer, in order to most
successfully engage the subject with the
viewer.

Portrait of an Achaemenid A Roman-era bust of The Mona Lisa, a painting

S atrap of Asia Minor (the Athenian General by Leonardo da Vinci of
Herakleia head, from Themistocles, based on Lisa Gherardini, is
Heraclea, in Bithynia), end a Greek original, in the probably the world's most
[1]
of 6th century BCE. This Museo Archeologico famous portrait.
is an Eastern portrait in Ostiense, Ostia, Rome,
purely East Greek Archaic Italy. The lost original of
style, one of the two this bust, dated
known forerunners of c. 470 BCE, has been
extant Greek portraits, described as "the first
along with the S abouroff true portrait of an
head. [1] individual European". [2]
History

Prehistorical portraiture

Plastered skull, Tell es-Sultan,

Jericho, Pre-Pottery Neolithic B, circa
9000 BC

Plastered human skulls were

reconstructed human skulls that were
made in the ancient Levant between 9000
and 6000 BC in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic
B period. They represent some of the
oldest forms of art in the Middle East
and demonstrate that the prehistoric
population took great care in burying their
ancestors below their homes. The skulls
denote some of the earliest sculptural
examples of portraiture in the history of
art.[3]

Historical portraiture

Roman-Egyptian funeral
portrait of a young boy

Most early representations that are

clearly intended to show an individual are
of rulers, and tend to follow idealizing
artistic conventions, rather than the
individual features of the subject's body,
though when there is no other evidence
as to the ruler's appearance the degree of
idealization can be hard to assess.
Nonetheless, many subjects, such as
Akhenaten and some other Egyptian
pharaohs, can be recognised by their
distinctive features. The 28 surviving
rather small statues of Gudea, ruler of
Lagash in Sumer between c. 2144–2124
BC, show a consistent appearance with
some individuality, although it is
sometimes disputed that these count as
portraits.[4]
Some of the earliest surviving painted
portraits of people who were not rulers
are the Greco-Roman funeral portraits
that survived in the dry climate of Egypt's
Faiyum district. These are almost the
only paintings from the classical world
that have survived, apart from frescos,
though many sculptures and portraits on
coins have fared better. Although the
appearance of the figures differs
considerably, they are considerably
idealized, and all show relatively young
people, making it uncertain whether they
were painted from life.
 Moche ceramic portrait. Larco
Museum Collection. Lima-Peru

The art of the portrait flourished in

Ancient Greek and especially Roman
sculpture, where sitters demanded
individualized and realistic portraits, even
unflattering ones. During the 4th century,
the portrait began to retreat in favor of an
idealized symbol of what that person
looked like. (Compare the portraits of
Roman Emperors Constantine I and
Theodosius I at their entries.) In the
Europe of the Early Middle Ages
representations of individuals are mostly
generalized. True portraits of the outward
appearance of individuals re-emerged in
the late Middle Ages, in tomb
monuments, donor portraits, miniatures
in illuminated manuscripts and then panel
paintings.

Moche culture of Peru was one of the

few ancient civilizations which produced
portraits. These works accurately
represent anatomical features in great
detail. The individuals portrayed would
have been recognizable without the need
for other symbols or a written reference
to their names. The individuals portrayed
were members of the ruling elite, priests,
warriors and even distinguished
artisans.[5] They were represented during
several stages of their lives. The faces of
gods were also depicted. To date, no
portraits of women have been found.
There is particular emphasis on the
representation of the details of
headdresses, hairstyles, body adornment
and face painting.

One of the best-known portraits in the

Western world is Leonardo da Vinci's
painting titled Mona Lisa, which is a
painting of Lisa del Giocondo. What has
been claimed as the world's oldest
known portrait was found in 2006 in the
Vilhonneur grotto near Angoulême and is
thought to be 27,000 years old.[6][7]
Self-portraiture

When the artist creates a portrait of

themself, it is called a 'self-portrait'.
Identifiable examples become numerous
in the late Middle Ages. But if the
definition is extended, the first was by the
Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten's sculptor
Bak, who carved a representation of
himself and his wife Taheri c. 1365 BC.
However, it seems likely that self-
portraits go back to the cave paintings,
the earliest representational art, and
literature records several classical
examples that are now lost.
Official portrait

Official portraits are photographs of

important personalities, such as kings,
politicians, or business executives. The
portrait is usually decorated with official
colors and symbols such as a flag,
presidential stripes, or a coat of arms,
belonging to a country, state, or
municipality. The image may be used
during events or meetings, or on
products.[8] A well-known example is the
portraying of presidents of the United
States, a tradition that has existed since
the country's founding.
Portrait photography

Portrait photography is a popular

commercial industry all over the world.
Many people enjoy having professionally
made family portraits to hang in their
homes, or special portraits to
commemorate certain events, such as
graduations or weddings.

Since the dawn of photography, people

have made portraits. The popularity of
the daguerreotype in the middle of the
19th century was due in large part to the
demand for inexpensive portraiture.
Studios sprang up in cities around the
world, some cranking out more than 500
plates a day. The style of these early
works reflected the technical challenges
associated with 30-second exposure
times and the painterly aesthetic of the
time. Subjects were generally seated
against plain backgrounds and lit with the
soft light of an overhead window and
whatever else could be reflected with
mirrors.

As photographic techniques developed,

an intrepid group of photographers took
their talents out of the studio and onto
battlefields, across oceans and into
remote wilderness. William Shew's
Daguerreotype Saloon, Roger Fenton's
Photographic Van and Mathew Brady's
What-is-it? wagon set the standards for
making portraits and other photographs
in the field.Some photographers took the
technique to other countries. Augustus
Washington moved to Monrovia, Liberia
from Hartford, Connecticut and created
daguerreotype portraits for many political
leaders for the country.

Politics

In politics, portraits of the leader are

often used as a symbol of the state. In
most countries, it is common protocol for
a portrait of the head of state to appear
in important government buildings.
Excessive use of a leader's portrait, such
as that done of Joseph Stalin, Adolf
Hitler, or Mao Zedong, can be indicative
of a personality cult.

Literature

In literature the term portrait refers to a

written description or analysis of a
person or thing. A written portrait often
gives deep insight, and offers an analysis
that goes far beyond the superficial. For
example, the American author Patricia
Cornwell wrote a best-selling 2002 book
entitled Portrait of a Killer about the
personality, background, and possible
motivations of Jack the Ripper, as well as
the media coverage of his murders, and
the subsequent police investigation of his
crimes.

However, in literature a portrait of a

character is a subtle combination of fact
and fiction, exploring the individual
psychology of the character in the wider
context of their environment. When the
subject of the narrative is a historical
figure, then the writer is free to create a
compelling and dramatic portrait of the
person that draws on imaginative
invention for verisimilitude. An example is
Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall (2009) which,
while acknowledging the work of the
historian Mary Robertson for background
information, imagines an intimate portrait
of Thomas Cromwell and his intense
relationship with Henry VIII at a critical
time in English history. It could be argued
that in literature any portrait is a discreet
assembly of facts, anecdotes, and
author's insights. Plutarch's Parallel Lives,
written in the 2nd century AD, offer a
prime example of historical literary
portraits, as a source of information
about the individuals and their times.
Painted portraits can also play a role in
literature. These can be fictional portraits,
such as that of Dorian Gray in the
eponymous 1891 novel by Oscar Wilde.
But sometimes also real portraits feature
in literature. An example is the portrait of
Richard III that plays a role in Josephine
Tey's 1951 novel The Daughter of Time.[9]
Gallery

Portrait of Maria Razumovskaya by

Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, 1798
Portrait of young Abraham Lincoln, by Ned
Bittinger, 2004; in the US House of
Representatives
Rembrandt Peale, Portrait of Thomas
Jefferson, 1805. New-York Historical
Society.
Portrait of Finnish president P. E.
Svinhufvud, by Eero Järnefelt in 1933.
A daguerreotype of Robert Cornelius in
1839. The oldest surviving photographic
self-portrait.
Portrait of Albert Bierstadt made by his
brother Edward Bierstadt, c. 1895. Possibly
the oldest surviving color portrait
photograph.

See also

Caricature
Environmental portrait
Head shot
Hidden face
 Hierarchy of genres
Painting the Century: 101 Portrait
Masterpieces 1900–2000

Portrait painting
Self-portrait
Royal Society of Portrait Painters

References

1. Cahn, Herbert A.; Gerin, Dominique

(1988). "Themistocles at Magnesia". The
Numismatic Chronicle. 148: 20 & plate 3.
JSTOR 42668124 (https://www.jstor.org/
stable/42668124) .
2. Tanner, Jeremy (2006). The Invention of
Art History in Ancient Greece: Religion,
Society and Artistic Rationalisation (http
s://books.google.com/books?id=qmbctV
2X-sEC&pg=PA97) . Cambridge University
Press. p. 97. ISBN 9780521846141.

3. Kleiner, Fred S. (2012). Gardner's Art

through the Ages: Backpack Edition (http
s://books.google.com/books?id=neEzEpy
uZ3AC&pg=PT42) . Cengage Learning.
p. 42. ISBN 9780840030542.

4. Winter, Irene (2009). "What/When is a

portrait?". Proceedings of the American
Philosophical Society. 153.

5. Donnan, Christopher B. Moche Portraits

from Ancient Peru University of Texas
Press, 2004. ISBN 0-292-71622-2.
6. Jones, Jonathan (6 June 2006). "Old
masters" (https://www.theguardian.com/
artanddesign/2006/jun/06/art) . The
Guardian. London.

7. Sage, Adam (5 June 2006). "Cave face

'the oldest portrait on record' " (https://we
b.archive.org/web/20080724131845/htt
p://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1350
9-2211142,00.html) . The Times. London.
Archived from the original (http://www.tim
esonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-2211142,
00.html) on July 24, 2008. Retrieved
2008-01-04.

8. Portuguese Almanac of Photography,

1957 edition, Mário Nogueira. Lisbon,
Portugal, 1957
 9. Friend, Stacie "Real Portraits in Literature"
(2020). Maes, Hans (ed.). Portraits and
Philosophy. Routledge.

External links

Look up portrait, portraiture, or

portraitist in Wiktionary, the free
dictionary.
Wikimedia Commons has media
related to Portraits .
How to Draw Faces, a how-to article
from wikiHow
Digital Portraitindex (https://www.portr
aitindex.de/) (in German)
National Portrait Gallery (https://www.
npg.si.edu/) , Smithsonian Institution
Home page (https://www.npg.org.u
k/) , National Portrait Gallery, London
National Portrait Gallery Moscow (htt
p://www.portret.ru/)
Jeanne Ivy's self-portrait page (https://
web.archive.org/web/2002031008351
2/http://www.research.umbc.edu/~ivy/
selfportrait/) – What Artists Find When
They Search in the Mirror.

Portrait Detectives (http://www.liverpo

olmuseums.org.uk/nof/portraits/) –
Fun interactive introduction to the
analysis of portraiture.
Reportret (http://www.reportret.info/)
– A gallery of reconstructions of
missing portraits from world history.
 Royal Society of Portrait Painters (http
s://web.archive.org/web/20100118143
427/http://www.therp.co.uk/default.as
p)

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