Portrait painting tips – Part 4

Picture This: Portraiture

Portraiture is like an artistic homonym summarizing a person’s nature, almost like a realistic caricature. Portraits are about the relationship with the sitter. The artist captures the persona of the subject, and that psychological awareness emerges through the painting.

Portraits are not a new artistic genre. Ancient days colored with pharaohs of Egypt, plebs and patricians of Greek and Roman eras, and medieval characters, all harnessed the power of the portrait to immortalize people. The first portraits, from Egypt in 3100 B.C. and carved in granite, slate, or diorite, conveyed a sense of everlasting power, rather than the fluctuations of every day life around the Nile River. Not until 1335 B.C. did portraits soften to more natural poses and accurate appearances. Trickling down to fifth century B.C., portraiture channeled the pervading Hellenistic influence. Like its mythological, literary counterpart, Greek portraiture romanticized images, frequently depicting impossibly handsome youth in the form of sculpture and paintings. Roman portraiture, instigated in second century A.D., exudes astonishing skill in its poignant accuracy of encapsulating the individuality of people. The Middle Ages ushered mosaics into portraiture, often illustrating lords and ladies in their lavish nobility.

Like most other artistic mediums, portraiture reached an apex in the Renaissance period of classical Greece and Rome. Elegant busts, natural sculptures and rich paintings detailed the complexities of individuals, subjects whom exemplified the legendary rebirth of art. Opulent, secular leaders of the communities in the Baroque and Rococo periods of the following two centuries used stately portraits as an exhibition of power and wealth. The first caricatures were birthed out of the exaggerated facial expressions from these portraits. The word caricature, in fact, translates “loaded portrait” when using its Italian roots.

The onset of the nineteenth century launched very definitive artistic eras, like neoclassicism, romanticism and realism. Portraits from the likes of Jacques-Louis David and Antonio Canova during this time period channeled the strength of light to highlight texture, yet simplicity in the outlines of the figure. Romantic artists brushed upon philosophical thought and extreme emotion, emphasizing provocative imagery, moody lighting and dramatic strokes. Realist artists seemed to rid themselves of the intense emotion of romanticism,