Portrait Art
History, Types, Development, Famous Portraitists and Self-Portrait Painters.
Visual Arts Guide

Portrait Painting

In the visual arts, a portrait can be a sculpture, a painting, a photograph or any other representation of a person, in which the face is the main theme. Traditional easel-type portraits usually depict the sitter head-and-shoulders, half-length, or full-body. There are several varieties of portraits, including: the traditional portrait of an individual, a group portrait, or a self portrait. In most cases, the portrait is specially composed, the aim being to depict the character and the unique attributes of the subject. Among Western Art's great exponents of portraiture are the Old Masters of the Renaissance such as the Florentines Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, the Tuscan Raphael, the Venetian artist Titian, the Dutch painter Jan van Eyck, and the German printmaker Albrecht Durer. Later exponents included the Dutch Realist Jan Vermeer, the great Baroque portaitists Rembrandt, Peter Paul Rubens, and Anthony Van Dyck, the Spanish painters Francisco Goya and Velázquez, and the English master Thomas Gainsborough. Modern portrait art is exemplified by famous artists like: Theodore Gericault, Edouard Manet; Paul Cezanne, Vincent Van Gogh, Edvard Munch; Paul Gaugin, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, William Orpen, Amedeo Modigliani, Otto Dix, Graham Sutherland and Lucien Freud.

The History of Portraiture

Ancient Portraits

Portrait painting can be viewed as public or private art. In ancient Mediterranean civilizations, like those of Egypt, Greece and Rome, and up until the Renaissance, portraiture was mainly a public art form, or a type of funerary art for Gods, Emperors, Kings, and Popes. They were executed as sculpture in bronze, marble or other stone, or as paintings on panels or walls (frescoes). Although private artworks - typically for royal families - were commissioned during the Sumerian, Egyptian, and Greek era, most ancient portraiture was public art, designed to decorate public areas and reflect the morals and religious values of the day.

Examples of portraiture from early Egypt include: the sculpture, Menkaure and His Queen (c.2470 BCE); the sculptures, Pharaoh Akhenaten (c.1364 BCE), The Daughter of Akhenaten (c.1375 BCE), and the bust of Nefertiti (c.1350 BCE); the Mummy Portraits (c.200 CE); examples in Greek art include: the marble bust, Socrates (c.340 BCE); the marble sculpture, Laocoon and His Sons (c.50 BCE); as well as numerous busts and sculptures of Greek Gods, from Aphrodite to Zeus. Important sculptors during the Classical Greek period were Polykleitos, Myron, and Phidias. Portraits were also painted on panels, although almost none of these interior or private artworks have survived.

Roman Portraiture

Roman Art was guided by practical political necessity. All Emperors from Julius Caesar to Constantine were commemorated in marble or bronze, their statues and busts displayed in public throughout the empire, to celebrate Roman power. A huge arts industry grew up in the capital, attracting sculptors, painters and artizans from all over Italy and Greece, simply to cope with this demand for imperial portraits. For example, there are more than 250 surviving busts of Emperor Augustus. Roman portraits continued the tradition of public art.

Portraiture During Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages

With the coming of the Dark Ages following the sack of Rome (c.350 CE), public art gave way to a less conspicuous art form. Portraiture as well as other types of paintings were created mainly for the insides of churches and monasteries, (typically in the form of fresco murals or encaustic panel paintings), and used to illuminate gospel texts, like the Book of Kells. The sole major patron of the arts during the Medieval era was the Church. Examples of works from this period include: encaustic panel portraits from Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai, such as, Throned Madonna with Child (c.600 CE); portraits of the Evangelists and Apostles in Celtic Christian illuminated manuscripts and Carolingian gospel texts, such as the pigment on parchment painting: John the Evangelist (c.800). During the Romanesque and Gothic periods to the fourteenth century, portraiture widened to include stained glass art - still visible today in the architectural masterpieces like the Cathedrals of Notre Dame (Paris) and (Chartres).

However, it wasn't until Renaissance Portraiture, that the history of portrait art really expanded, and became a major genre.

The Influence of the Italian Renaissance

During the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, a clear hierarchy of paintings was established by Renaissance academies of art. Historical or mythological paintings (containing a 'narrative' or 'message') were seen as the highest genre, followed (in order) by portraiture, pictures of everyday scenes, landscapes and still life. Thus, many portrait artists tried to enhance the standing of both their painting and their subject by creating 'historical-style' portraits. The Night Watch, by Rembrandt is a typical example. Also, the requirements of the Church for adornments to its chapels, led to a series of outstanding religious murals (eg. in the Arena Chapel, Padua, or the Sistine Chapel, Rome) consisting of numerous figures and portraits illustrating the narrative of Christianity, mostly executed in a 'larger-than-life, grand manner. The influence of the Renaissance on portrait art endured for centuries, as artists continued to emulate the classical style of Giotto, Leonardo and Michelangelo.

New Oil Paints and Support Stimulated Easel Portraits

The universal use of oils and canvas led to an upsurge of easel-painting, especially in Flanders, Holland and England. Portraiture greatly expanded as a genre during the 17th and 18th centuries, as exemplified in the growth of Baroque portraits, Neo-Classical portraiture, and nineteenth century portraits. There were also a number of notable Impressionist portraits by the likes of Edouard Manet and others.

20th Century Portraiture

The twentieth century showed little interest in the classical hierarchy of genres, and became absorbed with new ways of representing reality in an era of world wars and moral uncertainty. After a plethora of Expressionist portraits, advances in photography, film and video, made classical portraiture seem anachronistic and of little value. Instead, 20th century portrait artists simply used the genre as another means of promoting their style of art. Even Picasso's portraits were largely promotional in this respect. Post-war developments have also been influenced by additional art materials, computer-based media and new forms of printmaking, permitting new works in acrylics, aluminium paint, collage form, silk screen prints, computer prints and mixed media, as well as a variety of new sculptural media. This trend is exemplified in Pop-Art portraits by Andy Warhol, whose print portraits of Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, Jacqueline Kennedy, Elizabeth Taylor and Mao-Tse-Tung became icons of the later twentieth century.

General Styles

Like any genre of painting, portrait art reflected the prevailing style of painting. In early Egypt, painted portraits and relief sculptures only showed the subject in profile. A portrait painted during the Baroque era would be more exuberant than the dignified Neo-Classical pictures, but neither was as down to earth as those of the Realists. Likewise, Romantic portraiture was more animated than Impressionist portraits, while Expressionist portraiture from the early twentieth century is typically the most garish and colourful of all eras. That said, in very simple terms one can detect two basic styles or approaches in portrait-painting: the 'Grand Style' in which the subject is depicted in a more idealized or 'larger-than-life' form; and the realistic, prosaic style in which the subject is represented in a more down to earth realistic manner.

Styles of Individual Portraitists

Although the greatest portraitists, like Leonardo, Michelangelo and Rembrandt mastered both styles, most artists tend to exemplify one tradition only. For example, those who painted in the Grand Classical style included: Peter Paul Rubens, Nicolas Poussin, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, Sir Anthony Van Dyck, Francisco Goya, John Singer Sargent, and Sir Joshua Reynolds. Sir William Orpen, one of the great Irish portrait artists also painted in the grand 'academic style'. Others specialized in a more down to earth portraiture. Jan van Eyck and Jan Vermeer were known for their quiet precise portraits; Theodore Gericault for his realistic pictures of mentally ill patients; Van Gogh for his emotionally charged self-portraits; Pablo Picasso for his range of harlequins and Parisian street people; Amedeo Modigliani for his eccentric shaped faces; Otto Dix and Oskar Kokoschka for their boldness; Graham Sutherland for his mood-portraits; David Hockney for his precision and form; and Lucien Freud for his raw naturalism. Impressionist portraiture (eg. by Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Gauguin, Paul Cezanne) is more realistic, although certain paintings had classical tendencies (eg. Edouard Manet: Olympia (1863).

Types of Portraits

Religious Portraiture

During the history of Western Art, portrait artists have been employed for numerous reasons. First, in ancient Greece, Egypt and Rome (as well as in Mycenean, Minoan and other Mediterranean cultures), painters and sculptors were used to portray a wide range of Gods and Godesses, in a range of public artworks. Examples include: Aphrodite (c.350 BCE) by Praxiteles; the Venus de Milo (c.100 BCE); the frieze of Pergamon (c.180 BCE) as well as busts of Zeus, Pan, Eros and others.

The Italian Renaissance maintained this type of religious portraiture through its fresco murals of Christianity, featuring the Prophets, Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary and the Apostles. Giotto's and Botticelli's murals, Leonardo Da Vinci's 'The Last Supper' and Michelangelo's fescoes of 'Genesis' and 'The Last Judgement' on the ceiling and walls of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, contain some of the greatest Western religious portraits ever created. Many other religious and mythological portraits survive from the Renaissance, including: Mantegna's 'Lamentation Over the Dead Christ' (c.1490); Leonardo's 'Virgin and Child with St. Anne' (1502); Botticelli's 'Primavera' (1482) and Birth of Venus (c.1485); Michelangelo's sculpture 'Pieta' (1499); Raphael's 'Sistine Madonna' (1514); Titian's 'Venus of Urbino' (1538). It's important to note, that while many of these works are not limited to a single face or figure, and may (as in the case of the Sistine frescoes) be viewable only at a distance, their aim was to pictorialize Christianity in personal form, and should thus be considered part of the portrait genre. One should also note that the Renaissance attached the greatest importance to history painting that portrayed a narrative or message. Thus artists typically included their 'portraits' within large narrative scenes. Later religious portraits include: Carravaggio's 'St Jerome' (1606); Jusepe Ribera's 'Saint Paul the Hermit' (1640); and Francisco Goya's 'Saturn' (1821).

Historical Portraiture

Portrait artists also depicted revered historical human figures. For example, all the Roman Emperors (eg. Julius Caesar, Augustus, Marcus Aurelius) were portrayed in public art forms, like statues, busts and friezes, in order to glorify the Roman Empire. Egyptian Pharaohs were also widely portrayed in various media, such as portrait busts, tomb carvings and Mummy portraits. Later Popes, Kings and Presidents were also commemorated in portraits, a process which flourished from the High Renaissance onwards. Examples include: Raphael's 'Pope Leo X' (1519); Giuseppe Arcimboldo's 'Emperor Rudolf II as Vertumnus' (1591); Anthony Van Dyck's 'King Charles I of England Out Hunting' (1635); Diego Velazquez 'Portrait of Pope Innocent X' (1650); Gilbert Stewart's 'George Washington' (1796); Jacques-Louis David's Death of Marat (1793) and 'Napoleon Crossing the Alps' (1801); Francisco Goya's 'Wellington' (1816) and 'Saturn' (1821); John Singer Sargent's 'Theodore Roosevelt' (1903); Francis Bacon: Pope I - Study After Pope Innocent X by Velazquez (1951).

Celebrity Portraits

Famous people have always been a sought after subject (or target) of professional artists, from the Renaissance to Pop-Art. Examples of portraitists and their pictures of celebrities include: Lucas Cranach the Elder: Diptych with the Portraits of Luther and His Wife Katherina von Bora (1529); Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tisschbein: Goethe in the Campagna (1787); Joseph Lange: Mozart at the Pianoforte (1789); Sir Henry Raeburn: Sir Walter Scott (1823); Juan Gris: Portrait of Pablo Picasso (1912); Graham Sutherland: Portrait of Somerset Maugham (1949); Willem De Kooning: Marilyn Monroe (1954); Andy Warhol: Marilyn (1967). Other paintings of famous people include: the poet Anna Akhmatova by Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin; the actor Charlie Chaplin by Fernand Leger; the musicians David Bowie and Elvis Presley, painted by Stephen Finer and Andy Warhol respectively; and Bolshevik leader Vlamimir Ilich Lenin by Isaak Brodsky.

Vanity Portraiture

Portrait artists were also commissioned by lesser nobles, cultural figures and businessmen to create a flattering likeness of them, reflecting their position in society. This type of easel-art flourished during the High Italian Renaissance, and in the Northern Renaissance among the Dutch and Flemish schools, as portable art media like panel paintings and canvases began to replace mural frescoes. Examples include: 'Duke Federico da Montefeltro and His Spouse Battista Sforza' (c.1466) by Piero Della Francesca; 'The Gonzaga Family' (1474) by Andrea Mantegna; Leonardo Da Vinci's 'Lady with Ermine' (c.1490), and 'Mona Lisa' (c.1503-6), who was the wife of an important citizen in Florence; Raphael's 'Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione' (1515); Jan van Eyck's 'Virgin of Chancellor Rolin' (1436); 'Portrait of Georg Gisze of Danzig' (1532) by Hans Holbein the Younger; Frans Hals 'The Laughing Cavalier' (1624); the portrait bust 'Scipione Borghese' (1632) by Bernini; Rembrandt's 'The Night Watch or The Militia Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq' (1642); Joshua Reynolds 'Master Thomas Lister' (1764); Thomas Gainsborough's 'Mrs Richard Brinsley Sheridan' (c.1785); Jean Antoine Houdon's sculpture 'Francois Marie Arouet Voltaire' (1781).

The next article covers Renaissance Portraits.

• For other types of painting (portraits, genre-scenes, still-lifes etc) see: Painting Genres.
• For details of landscape and portraiture in Ireland, see: Irish Art Guide

• How to Update This Mini Review of Portrait Art: the Portraiture Genre

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