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Portrait in the fine arts. Portraiture: the history of development In what types of art is the genre of portrait used

Portrait in the fine arts. Portraiture: the history of development In what types of art is the genre of portrait used

16.07.2019

Portrait art originated in ancient times. But the path to a realistic portrait was very long.

A portrait in the fine arts is an image of a person or group of people. Through the external appearance of a person, the portrait also shows his inner world.

About the term

The word "portrait" (portrait) in European culture originally meant "pictorial reproduction" of any object, including an animal. And only in the XVII century. André Félibien, the French art historian and official court historian of King Louis XIV, suggested using the term "portrait" exclusively for "the depiction of a (concrete) human being."
The images of the faces of Jesus Christ, the Mother of God and the saints are not portraits - they are not painted from a specific person, these are only generalizing images. The exception is the portraits of the saints of the New Age, created during their lifetime.

The history of the formation of the portrait genre

The first samples of the portrait belong to ancient Egyptian sculpture. But we will talk about sculpture in a separate article.

The medieval portrait was mostly devoid of personalization, although the frescoes and mosaics of Byzantine, Russian and other churches are characterized by a clear physiognomic certainty and spirituality: the artists gradually give the saints the facial features of real people.
Starting from the X-XII centuries. the portrait in Western Europe begins to develop more intensively: it is preserved in tombstones, on coins and in book miniatures. His models are mainly noble persons - rulers and members of their families, retinue.
Gradually, the portrait begins to penetrate into easel painting. One of the first examples of an easel portrait of this period is the "Portrait of John the Good", the second king of France.

Unknown artist. "Portrait of John the Good" (circa 1349)
As for the portrait genre in the East, the situation there was more favorable: the surviving portraits date back to 1000 AD, and the medieval Chinese portrait is generally very specific.

Unknown artist. "Portrait of the Buddhist Monk Wuzhun Shifan" (1238)
This portrait impresses not only with the ability to depict the individual features of the character's appearance, but also with the ability to convey the inner world of a person, his intellect.
Ancient Peruvian culture of the Indians mochica(I-VIII centuries) was one of the few ancient civilizations of the New World where portraits existed.

Genre Development

The portrait genre reached its peak during the Renaissance. This is understandable: after all, the ideology of the era has changed - a person has become a person and a measure of all things, so his image was given special importance. Although the first portraits still repeated the images of ancient coins and medals (profile images).

Piero della Francesca "Portrait of Duke Federigo Montefeltro" (1465-1466)
In the era of the early Renaissance, there was a “exit from the profile to the front”, which indicated the formation of the European portrait genre. In addition, the technique of oil painting arose at this time - the portrait becomes more subtle and psychological.
In the portrait work of the masters of the High Renaissance (Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto), the genre was further developed. In portrait images, intelligence, human dignity, a sense of freedom, and spiritual harmony are clearly expressed.
The most famous portrait in the world from this period is the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci.

Leonardo da Vinci "Mona Lisa" (1503-1519). Louvre (Paris)
Famous German portrait painters of this period are A. Dürer and Hans Holbein Jr.

Albrecht Durer "Self-portrait" (1500)
In the era of Mannerism (XVI century), forms of group and historical portraits arose. A well-known portrait painter of that time was the Spanish painter of Greek origin El Greco.

El Greco, The Apostles Peter and Paul (1592). State Hermitage Museum (Petersburg)
In the 17th century The highest achievements in portrait painting belong to the Netherlands. The perception of the world of the portrait of that time is already filled with a different content compared to the Renaissance: the view of reality was no longer harmonious, the inner world of a person became more complicated. There is a democratization of the portrait - this is especially noticeable in Holland. People of various social strata of society and age groups appear on the canvases.

Rembrandt "The Anatomy Lesson of Doctor Tulp" (1632)
The number of commissioned portraits is increasing. Artists (Diego Velasquez, Hals) begin to create portraits-types of people from the people. A form of self-portrait is being developed (Rembrandt, his student Karel Fabricius, Anthony van Dyck, Nicolas Poussin). Ceremonial portraits are created, as well as family portraits.

Rembrandt "Saskia in a red hat" (1633-1634)
The greatest Flemish portrait painters were Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck, the Dutch - Rembrandt, Franz Hals. The Spanish painter of the period, Diego Velasquez, is considered one of the greatest portrait painters in the history of the genre. In the portraits of Velazquez, artistry and psychological completeness are clearly felt.

D. Velasquez "Self-portrait" (1656)
At the beginning of the XVIII century. portrait as a genre is degrading. This is especially true for realistic portraits. Why did this happen?
Increasingly, portraits began to be painted to order. And who are the customers? Certainly not poor. Aristocrats and bourgeois demanded one thing from the artist: flattery. Therefore, portraits of this time are usually cloying, lifeless, theatrical. Ceremonial portraits of the powerful of this world become the standard of the portrait genre - this is where its decline comes from.

G. Rigaud "Portrait of Louis XIV" (1701)
But the decline of the genre did not mean its complete destruction. The Age of Enlightenment contributed to the return of the realistic and psychological portrait. The late works of Antoine Watteau, simple and sincere "genre" portraits of Chardin, portraits of Fragonard, the English artist W. Hogarth open a new page in the portrait genre. In Spain, Goya begins to work in this genre. World-class painters appeared in Russia - D. Levitsky and V. Borovikovsky.
The portrait miniature is widely used.

D. Evreinov "Portrait of Count A. S. Stroganov". Enamel. 8.2 × 7 cm, oval. 1806. State Hermitage (Petersburg)
Classicism, which dominated the 19th century, made the portrait more strict, losing the pomp and sugaryness of the 18th century.
The most notable phenomenon in this genre was the painter Jacques Louis David.

J. L. David "Napoleon at the St. Bernard Pass" (1800)
The era of romanticism brought a critical line to the portrait. The Spaniard Goya, who created the group Portrait of the Family of Charles IV, is considered an outstanding master of this period. This work was commissioned as a ceremonial portrait, but in the end reflected the ugliness of the ruling dynasty.

F. Goya "Portrait of the family of Charles IV"
The technique of writing this portrait is magnificent, but Goya fundamentally abandoned everything that was created in the ceremonial group portrait before him. He placed the representatives of the royal family in a row, and the figures of the obese King Carlos and his ugly wife Marie-Louise became the center.
The exact psychological characteristics of each character are given. The images are authentic, written on the verge of grotesque and caricature. This is a true portrait of royalty. The French novelist Théophile Gauthier said of the main characters in this portrait that they resemble "a baker and his wife who have won a big prize in the lottery."
The portrait does not show the slightest desire to embellish Queen Marie-Louise. And only the children in Goya's painting are beautiful - Goya's sympathy for children was unchanged.
Russian portrait painters Orest Kiprensky, Karl Bryullov, Vasily Tropinin loudly declared themselves. About them - a separate article.
Of the masters of this period, J.O.D. Ingres. The name of the Frenchman Honore Daumier is associated with the emergence of the first significant examples of a satirical portrait in graphics and sculpture.
From the middle of the XIX century. a portrait of realism emerges. It is characterized by an interest in the social characteristics of the depicted, a psychological characteristic. In Russia, the Wanderers opened up new possibilities in painting, in particular, in portraiture.

Ivan Kramskoy “Portrait of the artist I.I. Shishkin" (1873)
By this time, photography was born, the photographic portrait becomes a serious competitor to the pictorial portrait, but at the same time encourages him to search for new forms that are inaccessible to photographic art.
The Impressionists introduced a new concept into the portrait genre: the rejection of maximum likelihood (which they left to a photographic portrait), but a focus on the variability of a person's appearance and his behavior in a changing environment.

K. Korovin "Portrait of Chaliapin" (1911)
Paul Cezanne sought to express in the portrait some stable properties of the model, and Vincent van Gogh tried to reflect the problems of the moral and spiritual life of modern man through the portrait.
At the end of the XIX-beginning of the XX centuries. in art, the Art Nouveau style dominated, the portrait of that time becomes laconic and often grotesque (for Toulouse-Lautrec, Edvard Munch, etc.).

Toulouse-Lautrec "Jeanne Avril" (1893)
In the XX century. the portrait is again in decline. On the basis of modernism, works arise that are nominally considered a portrait, but devoid of its qualities. They intentionally move away from the real appearance of the model and reduce its image to convention. It is believed that the photograph depicts accuracy, and the artist must show the originality and uniqueness of the depicted character. Well, something like this.

Juan Gris "Portrait of Picasso" (1912)
Among the portrait painters of the 20th century working in the realistic portrait genre, one can name the American artists Robert Henry and George Bellows, Renato Guttuso (Italy), Hans Erni (Switzerland), Diego Rivera and Siqueiros (Mexico), etc. But interest in the portrait in 1940 -1950s in general, it is falling, but interest in abstract and non-figurative art is increasing.

Portrait Portrait

(French portrait, from obsolete portraire - to depict), an image (image) of a person or group of people that exists or existed in reality. Portrait - one of the main genres of painting, sculpture, graphics. The most important criterion for portraiture is the similarity of the image with the model (original). It is achieved not only by the faithful transmission of the external appearance of the person portrayed, but also by the disclosure of his spiritual essence, the dialectical unity of individual and typical features that reflect a certain era, social environment, and nationality. At the same time, the attitude of the artist to the model, his own worldview, aesthetic credo, which are embodied in his creative manner, the way of interpreting the portrait, give the portrait image a subjective-authorial coloring. Historically, a wide and multifaceted typology of the portrait has developed: depending on the technique of execution, purpose, and features of the image of the characters, easel portraits (paintings, busts, graphic sheets) and monumental (frescoes, mosaics, statues), front and intimate, bust, full-length, full face, profile, etc. There are portraits on medals ( cm. medal art), gemmah ( cm. Glyptic), portrait miniature. According to the number of characters, the portrait is divided into individual, double, group. A specific genre of portraiture is self-portrait. The mobility of the genre boundaries of the portrait makes it possible to combine it with elements of other genres in one work. Such are the portrait-picture, where the person being portrayed is presented in connection with the world of things around him, with nature, architecture, other people, and the portrait-type is a collective image, a structurally similar portrait. The possibility of identifying in the portrait not only the high spiritual and moral qualities of a person, but also the negative properties of the model led to the appearance of a portrait caricature, a cartoon, a satirical portrait. In general, the art of portraiture is able to deeply reflect the most important social phenomena in the complex interweaving of their contradictions.

Having originated in ancient times, the portrait reached a high level of development in ancient Eastern, especially in ancient Egyptian sculpture, where it mainly served as a "double" of the person being portrayed in the afterlife. Such a religious and magical purpose of the ancient Egyptian portrait led to the projection onto the canonical type of image of the individual features of a certain person. In ancient Greece, during the classical period, idealized sculptural portraits of poets, philosophers, and public figures were created. From the end of the 5th century BC e. The ancient Greek portrait is more and more individualized (the work of Demetrius from Alopeka, Lysippus), and in Hellenistic art it tends to dramatize the image. The ancient Roman portrait is marked by a clear transmission of the individual features of the model, the psychological reliability of the characteristics. In Hellenistic art and in ancient Rome, along with portrait, sometimes mythologized busts and statues, portraits on coins and gems were widespread. The picturesque Faiyum portraits (Egypt, 1st-4th centuries), largely associated with the ancient Eastern magical tradition of the "double portrait", were created under the influence of ancient art, bore a pronounced resemblance to the model, and in later samples - a specific spiritual expressiveness.

The era of the Middle Ages, when the personal principle was dissolved in impersonal corporatism, religious catholicity, left a special imprint on the evolution of the European portrait. Often it is an integral part of the church art ensemble (images of rulers, their entourage, donors). For all that, some sculptures of the Gothic era, Byzantine and ancient Russian mosaics and frescoes are characterized by a clear physiognomic certainty, the beginnings of a spiritual individuality. In China, despite being subject to a strict typological canon, medieval masters (especially of the Song period, the 10th-13th centuries) created many brightly individualized portraits, often emphasizing features of intellectualism in models. The portrait images of medieval Japanese painters and sculptors are expressive, the masters of portrait miniatures of Central Asia, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan (Kemaleddin Behzad), Iran (Reza Abbasi), India came from living observations.

Outstanding achievements in the art of portraiture are associated with the Renaissance, which affirmed the ideals of a heroic, active and effective personality. The sense of wholeness and harmony of the universe, characteristic of Renaissance artists, the recognition of man as the highest principle and center of earthly existence determined the new structure of the portrait, in which the model often appeared not against a conditional, unreal background, but in a real spatial environment, sometimes in direct communication with fictional (mythological) and gospel characters. The principles of the Renaissance portrait, outlined in the Italian art of the trecento, were firmly established in the 15th century. (painting by Masaccio, Andrea del Castagno, Domenico Veneziano, D. Ghirlandaio, S. Botticelli, Piero della Francesca, A. Mantegna, Antonello da Messina, Gentile and Giovanni Bellini, statues by Donatello and A. Verrocchio, easel sculpture by Desiderio da Settignano, medals Pisanello). Masters of the High Renaissance Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto deepen the content of portrait images, endow them with the power of intellect, consciousness of personal freedom, spiritual harmony, and sometimes inner drama. Greater in comparison with the Italian portrait of spiritual sharpness, object accuracy of the image was distinguished by the portrait work of the Dutch (J. van Eyck, Robert Campen, Rogier van der Weyden, Luke of Leiden) and German (A. Dürer, L. Cranach the Elder, H. Holbein the Younger) masters. The hero of their portraits often appears as an inseparable particle of the universe, organically included in its infinitely complex system. Renaissance humanism permeated the pictorial, graphic and sculptural portraits of French artists of this era (J. Fouquet, J. and F. Clouet, Corneille de Lyon, J. Pilon). In the art of the Late Renaissance and Mannerism, the portrait loses the harmonious clarity of Renaissance images: it is replaced by the intensity of the figurative structure and the emphasized dramatic spiritual expression (works by J. Pontormo, A. Bronzino in Italy, El Greco in Spain).

The Crisis of Renaissance Anthropocentrism in the Conditions of Socio-Political Shifts at the Turn of the 16th and 17th Centuries. determined the new character of the Western European portrait. Its deep democratization, the desire for a multilateral knowledge of the human personality in the 17th century. received the most complete embodiment in the art of Holland. Emotional saturation, love for a person, comprehension of the innermost depths of his soul, the subtlest shades of thought and feeling marked the portraits of Rembrandt's work. Full of life and movement, portraits by F. Hals reveal the multidimensionality and variability of the mental states of the model. The complexity and inconsistency of reality are reflected in the work of the Spaniard D. Velazquez, who created a gallery full of dignity, spiritual wealth of images of people from the people and a series of mercilessly truthful portraits of the court nobility. Bright, full-blooded natures attracted the Flemish painter P. P. Rubens, the subtle expressiveness of the characteristics marked the virtuoso portraits of his compatriot A. van Dyck. Realistic trends in art of the 17th century. also appeared in the portrait work of S. Cooper and J. Reil in England, F. De Champaigne, the Le Nain brothers in France, and V. Gislandi in Italy. A significant ideological and substantive renewal of the portrait, expressed, in particular, in expanding its genre boundaries (development of a group portrait and its development into a group portrait-painting, especially in the works of Rembrandt, Hals, Velazquez; wide and diverse development of easel forms of self-portrait by Rembrandt, van Dyck, the French artist N. Poussin, and others), was accompanied by the evolution of his expressive means, which gave the image greater vitality. At the same time, many portraits of the 17th - first half of the 18th centuries. did not go beyond the boundaries of purely external impressiveness, demonstrated a falsely idealized, often "mythologized" image of the customer (works by the French painters P. Mignard and I. Rigaud, the Englishman P. Lely).

Fresh realistic tendencies appeared in the portrait of the 18th century, associated with the humanistic ideals of the Enlightenment. Truthfulness of life, accuracy of social characteristics, sharp analyticity are characteristic of the works of French portrait painters (painting and easel graphics by M. K. de Latour and J. O. Fragonard, plastic art by J. A. Houdon and J. B. Pigalle, "genre" portraits of J. B. S. Chardin, pastels J. B. Perronneau) and British painters (W. Hogarth, J. Reynolds, T. Gainsborough).

In the conditions of economic and cultural growth of Russia in the XVII century. Here, portraits-parsunas, which were still conditionally icon-painting in nature, became widespread. Intensive development of secular easel portrait in the XVIII century. (paintings by I. N. Nikitin, A. M. Matveev, A. P. Antropov, I. P. Argunov) by the end of the century raised it to the level of the highest achievements of the modern world portrait (painting by F. S. Rokotov, D. G. Levitsky, V. L. Borovikovsky, plastic art by F. I. Shubin, engravings by E. P. Chemesov).

The Great French Revolution of 1789-94, the national liberation movements of the first half of the 19th century. contributed to the formulation and solution of new tasks in the portrait genre. The essential aspects of the era are vividly and truthfully reflected in a whole gallery of portraits marked with features of classicism by the French artist J. L. David. Elevated romantic, passionately emotional, and sometimes grotesque satirical images were created in his portraits by the Spanish painter F. Goya. In the first half of the XIX century. along with the development of romanticism tendencies (painting portraits by T. Gericault and E. Delacroix in France, O. A. Kiprensky, K. P. Bryullov, partly V. A. Tropinin in Russia, F. O. Runge in Germany) a new vital The traditions of the portrait art of classicism were also filled with content (in the work of the French artist J. O. D. Ingres), significant examples of the satirical portrait appeared (graphics and sculpture by O. Daumier in France).

In the middle and in the second half of the XIX century. the geography of national schools of portraiture is expanding, many stylistic trends are emerging, whose representatives solved the problems of socio-psychological characteristics, displaying the ethical merits of a contemporary (A. Menzel and W. Leibl in Germany, J. Matejko in Poland, D. Sargent, J. Whistler, T Aikins in the USA, etc.). In the psychological, often socially typified portraits of the Wanderers V. G. Perov, N. N. Ge, I. N. Kramskoy, I. E. Repin, their interest in the representatives of the people, in the Raznochinsk intelligentsia as socially significant, full of spiritual nobility, was embodied .

The achievements of the French masters of impressionism and artists close to them (E. Manet, O. Renoir, E. Degas, sculptor O. Rodin) led in the last third of the 19th century. to the renewal of the ideological and artistic concepts of the portrait, which now conveys the variability of the appearance and behavior of the model in an equally changeable environment. Opposite tendencies found expression in the work of P. Cezanne, who sought to express the stable properties of the model in a monumental and artistic image, and in dramatic, nervously tense portraits and self-portraits of the Dutchman W. van Gogh, which deeply reflected the burning problems of the moral and spiritual life of modern man.

In the pre-revolutionary era, the Russian realistic portrait received a new quality in the acutely psychological works of V. A. Serov, in the spiritually significant portraits of M. A. Vrubel filled with deep philosophical meaning, in the life-filled portraits-types and portraits-paintings of N. A. Kasatkin, A. E. Arkhipova, B. M. Kustodiev, F. A. Malyavin, in the hidden drama of the pictorial and graphic portraits of K. A. Somov, in the sculptural works of Konenkov S. T., P. P. Trubetskoy and others.

In the XX century. in the portrait genre, complex and contradictory trends in modern art appeared. On the basis of modernism, works arise that are devoid of the very specifics of a portrait, deliberately deforming or completely abolishing the image of a person. In contrast to them, there are intensive, sometimes contradictory searches for new means of expressing the complex spiritual essence of modern man, reflected in the graphics of K. Kollwitz (Germany), in the plastic arts of Ch. Despio (France), E. Barlach (Germany), in the painting of P. Picasso, A. Matisse (France), A. Modigliani (Italy). The painters R. Guttuso in Italy, D. Rivera and D. Siqueiros in Mexico, E. Wyeth in the USA, the sculptors V. Aaltonen in Finland, J. Manzu in Italy, and others have creatively developed and are developing the traditions of realistic portraiture. portrait painters of the socialist countries: J. Kisfaludi-Strobl in Hungary, F. Kremer in the GDR, K. Dunikovsky in Poland, K. Baba in Romania, and others.

The Soviet multinational art of portraiture is a qualitatively new stage in the development of world portraiture. Its main content is the image of the builder of communism, marked by such social and spiritual qualities as collectivism, revolutionary purposefulness, and socialist humanism. Soviet portraits-types and portraits-paintings reflected hitherto unseen phenomena in the working and social life of the country (works by I. D. Shadr, G. G. Rizhsky, A. N. Samokhvalov, S. V. Gerasimov). Based on the classical traditions of Western European and Russian realistic portraiture, creatively mastering the best achievements of portrait art of the 19th-20th centuries, Soviet masters created life-like portrait images of workers, collective farmers, soldiers of the Soviet Army (plastic art by E. V. Vuchetich, N. V. Tomsky, painting by A. A. Plastov, I. N. Klychev and others), representatives of the Soviet intelligentsia (painters K. S. Petrov-Vodkin, M. V. Nesterov, P. D. Korin, M. S. Saryan, K. K. Magalashvili, T. T. Salakhov, L. A. Muuga, sculptors Konenkov, S. D. Lebedeva, V. I. Mukhina, T. E. Zalkaln, graphic artists V. A. Favorsky, G. S. Vereisky) . Soviet group works (works by A. M. Gerasimov, V. P. Efanov, I. A. Serebryany, D. D. Zhilinsky, S. M. Veyverite) and historical-revolutionary works ("Leniniana" by N. A. Andreev) are marked by innovative features. , works by I. I. Brodsky, V. I. Kasiyan, Ya. I. Nikoladze and others) portraits. Developing in line with the unified ideological and artistic method of socialist realism, Soviet portrait art is distinguished by the richness and diversity of individual creative solutions, and by the bold search for new means of expression.

F. Hals. "The Banquet of the Officers of the Rifle Company of St. George". 1616. F. Hals Museum. Harlem.

"I. E. Repin. "Portrait of L. N. Tolstoy. 1887. Tretyakov Gallery. Moscow.

D. D. Zhilinsky. "Gymnasts of the USSR". Tempera. 1964. Art Fund of the USSR. Moscow.
Literature: The art of the portrait. Sat. Art., M., 1928; M. V. Alpatov, Essays on the history of the portrait, (M.-L.), 1937; V. N. Lazarev, Portrait in European art of the 17th century, M.-L., 1937; Essays on the history of Russian portraiture in the second half of the 19th century, ed. Edited by N. G. Mashkovtseva. Moscow, 1963. Essays on the history of Russian portraiture in the late 19th - early 20th centuries, ed. Edited by N. G. Mashkovtsev and N. I. Sokolova. Moscow, 1964. Essays on the history of the Russian portrait of the first half of the 19th century, (under the editorship of I. M. Schmidt), M., 1966; L. S. Singer, On the portrait. Problems of realism in the art of portraiture, (M., 1969); his, Soviet portrait painting 1917 - early 1930s, M., 1978; V. N. Stasevich, Art of a portrait, M., 1972; Problems of a portrait, M., 1973; M. I. Andronikova, On the art of the portrait, M., 1975; Portrait in European painting of the 15th - early 20th centuries. (Catalog), M., 1975; Waetzoldt W., Die Kunst des Portrdts, Lpz., 1908; Zeit und Bildnis, Bd 1-6, W., 1957.

Source: Popular Art Encyclopedia. Ed. Field V.M.; M.: Publishing house "Soviet Encyclopedia", 1986.)

portrait

(French portrait, from the obsolete portraire - to depict), one of the main genres of fine art. Depending on the technique of execution, easel portraits are distinguished ( paintings, busts) and monumental ( statues, frescoes, mosaics). In accordance with the attitude of the artist to the person being portrayed, portraits are ceremonial and intimate. According to the number of characters, portraits are divided into individual, double, group.

One of the most important qualities of a portrait is the similarity of the image with the model. However, the artist conveys not only the appearance of the person being portrayed, but also his individuality, as well as typical features that reflect a certain social environment and era. The portrait painter creates not just a mechanical cast of a person's facial features, but penetrates into his soul, reveals his character, feelings and views on the world. Creating a portrait is always a very complex creative act, which is influenced by many factors. These are the relationship between the artist and the model, and the peculiarities of the worldview of the era, which has its own ideals and ideas about what is due in a person, and much more.

Born in ancient times, the portrait first flourished in ancient Egyptian art, where sculptural busts and statues served as a “double” of a person in his afterlife. In ancient Greece, during the classical period, idealized sculptural portraits of public figures, philosophers, and poets (a bust of Pericles by Kresilaus, 5th century BC) became widespread. In ancient Greece, the right to be imprinted in a statue was obtained primarily by athletes who won the Olympic and other pan-Greek games. From con. 5th c. BC e. the ancient Greek portrait becomes more individualized (the work of Demetrius from Alopeka, Lysippus). The ancient Roman portrait is distinguished by unvarnished truthfulness in the transfer of individual traits and psychological authenticity. The faces of men and women captured in different periods of the history of the Roman state convey their inner world, the feelings and experiences of people who felt themselves the rulers of life at the dawn of the Roman era and fell into spiritual despair at the time of its decline. In Hellenistic art, along with busts and statues, profile portraits, minted on coins and gemmah.

The first pictorial portraits were created in Egypt in the 1st-4th centuries. n. e. They were tomb images made in the technique encaustics(see art. Fayum portrait). In the Middle Ages, when the personal principle was dissolved in a religious impulse, portrait images of rulers, their entourage, donors were part of the monumental and decorative ensemble of the temple.

A new page in the history of the portrait was opened by an Italian artist Giotto di Bondone. According to J. Vasari, "he introduced the custom of drawing living people from life, which has not been done for more than two hundred years." Having acquired the right to exist in religious compositions, the portrait gradually stands out as an independent image on the board, and later on canvas. In the era Renaissance the portrait declared itself as one of the main genres, glorifying man as the “crown of the universe”, glorifying his beauty, courage and limitless possibilities. In the era of the Early Renaissance, the masters faced the task of accurately reproducing the facial features and appearance of the model, the artists did not hide the flaws in appearance (D. Ghirlandaio). At the same time, the tradition of the profile portrait was taking shape ( Piero della Francesca, Pisanello, etc.).

16th century was marked by the flourishing of portraiture in Italy. Masters of the High Renaissance ( Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto) endow the heroes of their paintings not only with the power of intellect and consciousness of personal freedom, but also with inner drama. Balanced and calm images alternate in the work of Raphael and Titian with dramatic psychological portraits. Symbolic (based on the plot of literary works) and allegorical portraits are gaining popularity.

In the art of the late Renaissance and mannerism the portrait loses harmony, it is replaced by emphasized drama and tension of the figurative structure (J. Pontormo, El Greco).

All R. 15th c. the rapid development of the portrait takes place in the northern countries. Renaissance humanism is imbued with the works of the Dutch (J. van Eik, R. van der Weiden, P. Christus, H. Memling), French (J. Fouquet, F. Clouet, Corneille de Lyon) and German (L. Cranach, A. Durer) artists of this time. In England, portraiture is represented by the work of foreign masters - H. Holbein Junior and the Dutch.
The desire for the most complete and multifaceted knowledge of human nature in all its complexity is characteristic of the art of Holland in the 17th century. Emotional tension, penetration into the innermost depths of the human soul amaze portrait images Rembrandt. Life-affirming power is full of group portraits of F. Khalsa. The inconsistency and complexity of reality was reflected in the portrait work of the Spaniard D. Velasquez, who created a gallery full of dignity images of people from the people and a series of ruthlessly truthful portraits of the court nobility. Full-blooded and bright natures attracted P.P. Rubens. The virtuosity of technique and subtle expressiveness are distinguished by the brush of his compatriot A. Van Dyck.
Realistic tendencies associated with the ideals of the era Enlightenment, characteristic of many portraits of the 18th century. The accuracy of social characteristics and acute truthfulness characterize the art of French artists (J. O. Fragonard, M. C. de Latour, J. B. S. Chardin). The heroic spirit of the era of the French Revolution was embodied in the portrait works of J. L. David. Emotional, grotesque-satirical, and sometimes tragic images were created in his portraits by the Spaniard F. Goya. Romantic tendencies are reflected in the portrait work of T. géricault and E. Delacroix in France, F.O. Runge in Germany.
In the second floor. 19th century there are many stylistic trends and national portrait schools. The Impressionists, as well as close to them E. Mane and E. Degas changed the traditional view of the portrait, emphasizing, first of all, the variability of the appearance and state of the model in an equally changeable environment.
In the 20th century The portrait revealed the contradictory tendencies of art, which was looking for new means of expressing the complex spiritual life of modern man (P. Picasso, A. Matisse and etc.).
In the history of Russian art, the portrait occupies a special place. Compared with Western European painting, in Rus' the portrait genre arose rather late, but it was he who became the first secular genre in art, the development of the real world by artists began with it. The eighteenth century is often referred to as the "age of the portrait". The first Russian artist who studied in Italy and achieved undoubted mastery in the portrait genre was I.N. Nikitin. Artists of the second floor. 18th century they learned how to masterfully convey the diversity of the surrounding world - thin silvery lace, velvet overflows, the brilliance of brocade, the softness of fur, the warmth of human skin. The works of major portrait painters (D. G. Levitsky, V. L. Borovikovsky, F.S. Rokotova) represented not so much a specific person as a universal ideal.
Epoch romanticism forced the artists (O. A. Kiprensky, V. A. Tropinina, K.P. Bryullov) take a fresh look at the portrayed, feel the unique individuality of each, variability, the dynamics of a person’s inner life, “the soul’s wonderful impulses”. In the second floor. 19th century in creativity Wanderers(V. G. Perov, I. N. Kramskoy, I. E. Repin) develops and reaches the heights of a psychological portrait, the line of which was brilliantly continued in the work of V.A. Serov.
Artists of the turn of the 19th–20th centuries sought to enhance the emotional impact of portraits on the viewer. The desire to capture external similarity is replaced by the search for sharp comparisons, subtle associations, symbolic overtones (M.A. Vrubel, artists associations " World of Art" And " Jack of Diamonds"). At 20 - early. 21st century the portrait still expresses the spiritual and creative searches of artists of various trends (V. E. Popkov, N.I. Nesterov, T. G. Nazarenko and etc.).

image or description of a person or group of people (group P.). In the visual arts, one of the genres in which the appearance of a person is recreated also captures his spiritual world.

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PORTRAIT

French portrait, from the obsolete portraire - depict), one of the main genres of fine art. Depending on the technique of execution, easel portraits (paintings, busts) and monumental ones (statues, frescoes, mosaics) are distinguished. In accordance with the attitude of the artist to the person being portrayed, portraits are ceremonial and intimate. According to the number of characters, portraits are divided into individual, double, group.

Born in ancient times, the portrait first flourished in ancient Egyptian art, where sculptural busts and statues served as a “double” of a person in his afterlife. In ancient Greece, during the classical period, idealized sculptural portraits of public figures, philosophers, and poets (a bust of Pericles by Kresilaus, 5th century BC) became widespread. In ancient Greece, the right to be imprinted in the statue was obtained primarily by athletes who won the Olympic and other pan-Greek games. From con. 5th c. BC e. the ancient Greek portrait becomes more individualized (the work of Demetrius from Alopeki, Lysippus). The ancient Roman portrait is distinguished by unvarnished truthfulness in the transfer of individual traits and psychological authenticity. The faces of men and women captured in different periods of the history of the Roman state convey their inner world, the feelings and experiences of people who felt themselves the rulers of life at the dawn of the Roman era and fell into spiritual despair at the time of its decline. In Hellenistic art, along with busts and statues, profile portraits, minted on coins and gems, became widespread.

The first pictorial portraits were created in Egypt in the 1st-4th centuries. n. e. They were tomb images made using the encaustic technique (see the Fayum portrait article). In the Middle Ages, when the personal principle was dissolved in a religious impulse, portrait images of rulers, their close associates, donors were part of the monumental and decorative ensemble of the temple.

A new page in the history of the portrait was opened by the Italian artist Giotto di Bondone. According to G. Vasari, "he introduced the custom of drawing living people from nature, which has not been done for more than two hundred years." Having acquired the right to exist in religious compositions, the portrait gradually stands out as an independent image on the board, and later on canvas. In the Renaissance, the portrait declared itself as one of the main genres, exalting man as the “crown of the universe”, praising his beauty, courage and limitless possibilities. In the era of the Early Renaissance, the masters faced the task of accurately reproducing the facial features and appearance of the model, the artists did not hide the flaws in appearance (D. Ghirlandaio). At the same time, the tradition of the profile portrait was taking shape (Piero della Francesca, Pisanello, and others).

16th century was marked by the flourishing of portraiture in Italy. Masters of the High Renaissance (Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto) endow the heroes of their paintings not only with the power of intellect and consciousness of personal freedom, but also with inner drama. Balanced and calm images alternate in the work of Raphael and Titian with dramatic psychological portraits. Symbolic (based on the plot of literary works) and allegorical portraits are gaining popularity.

In the art of the Late Renaissance and Mannerism, the portrait loses its harmony, it is replaced by an accentuated drama and tension of the figurative structure (J. Pontormo, El Greco).

All R. 15th c. the rapid development of the portrait takes place in the northern countries. The works of the Dutch (J. van Eyck, R. van der Weyden, P. Christus, H. Memling), French (J. Fouquet, F. Clouet, Corneille de Lyon) and German (L. Cranach, A. Dürer) are imbued with Renaissance humanism. ) artists of this time. In England, portraiture is represented by the work of foreign masters - H. Holbein the Younger and the Netherlands.

The desire for the most complete and multifaceted knowledge of human nature in all its complexity is characteristic of the art of Holland in the 17th century. Emotional tension, penetration into the innermost depths of the human soul amaze the portrait images of Rembrandt. The group portraits of F. Hals are full of life-affirming power. The inconsistency and complexity of reality was reflected in the portrait work of the Spaniard D. Velasquez, who created a gallery of images full of dignity of people from the people and a series of mercilessly truthful portraits of the court nobility. Full-blooded and bright natures attracted P. P. Rubens. The virtuosity of technique and subtle expressiveness are distinguished by the brush of his compatriot A. Van Dyck.

Realistic tendencies associated with the ideals of the Enlightenment are characteristic of many portraits of the 18th century. Accuracy of social characteristics and acute truthfulness characterize the art of French artists (J. O. Fragonard, M. C. de Latour, J. B. S. Chardin). The heroic spirit of the era of the French Revolution was embodied in the portrait works of J. L. David. Emotional, grotesque-satirical, and sometimes tragic images were created in his portraits by the Spaniard F. Goya. Romantic tendencies were reflected in the portrait work of T. Gericault and E. Delacroix in France, F. O. Runge in Germany.

In the second floor. 19th century there are many stylistic trends and national portrait schools. The Impressionists, as well as E. Manet and E. Degas close to them, changed the traditional view of the portrait, emphasizing, first of all, the variability of the appearance and state of the model in an equally changeable environment.

In the 20th century the portrait revealed the contradictory tendencies of art, which was looking for new means of expressing the complex mental life of modern man (P. Picasso, A. Matisse, and others).

In the history of Russian art, the portrait occupies a special place. Compared with Western European painting, in Rus' the portrait genre arose rather late, but it was he who became the first secular genre in art, the development of the real world by artists began with it. The eighteenth century is often referred to as the "age of the portrait". The first Russian artist who studied in Italy and achieved undeniable mastery in the portrait genre was I. N. Nikitin. Artists of the second floor. 18th century they learned how to masterfully convey the diversity of the surrounding world - thin silvery lace, velvet overflows, the brilliance of brocade, the softness of fur, the warmth of human skin. The works of major portrait painters (D. G. Levitsky, V. L. Borovikovsky, F. S. Rokotov) represented not so much a specific person as a universal ideal.

The era of romanticism forced artists (O. A. Kiprensky, V. A. Tropinin, K. P. Bryullov) to take a fresh look at the portrayed, to feel the unique individuality of each, the variability, the dynamics of a person’s inner life, “the soul’s wonderful impulses.” In the second floor. 19th century in the work of the Wanderers (V. G. Perov, I. N. Kramskoy, I. E. Repin), a psychological portrait develops and reaches its heights, the line of which was brilliantly continued in the work of V. A. Serov.

Artists of the turn of the 19th–20th centuries sought to enhance the emotional impact of portraits on the viewer. The desire to capture external similarity is replaced by the search for sharp comparisons, subtle associations, symbolic overtones (M. A. Vrubel, artists of the World of Art and Jack of Diamonds associations). At 20 - early. 21st century the portrait still expresses the spiritual and creative searches of artists of various trends (V. E. Popkov, N. I. Nesterova, T. G. Nazarenko and others).

Great Definition

Incomplete definition ↓

A portrait (derived from the French word portrait) is an artistic depiction of a person with the transfer of his inner world.
In the portrait, a person can be depicted chest-deep, waist-deep, hip-deep, knee-deep, full-length.
The portrait can have a different turn of the head: full face, a quarter turn to the right or left, half a turn, three quarters, in profile.
The format of the portrait can be different: rectangular vertical, rectangular horizontal, square, oval or round.
The portrait is divided by size: portrait miniature, easel portrait (painting, graphics, sculpture), monumental portrait (monument, fresco, mosaic).
The portrait is divided according to the method of execution: oil, pencil, pastel, watercolor, dry brush, engraved, miniature, photographic, etc.
The portrait can be painted in various styles: academicism, realism, impressionism, expressionism, modern, abstractionism, surrealism, cubism, pop art, etc.

There are various classificationsportrait:

self-portrait- a graphic, pictorial or sculptural image of the artist, made by him with the help of a mirror or a system of mirrors.

Allegorical portrait- a kind of costume portrait, in which the image of the person being portrayed is presented in the form of an allegory.

military portrait- a kind of ceremonial portrait - a portrait in the image of a commander.

group portrait- a portrait that includes at least three characters.

child portrait

Donor's portrait- a kind of religious portrait, in which the person who made the donation was depicted in the picture (for example, next to Jesus).
Donator (from lat. donator - donor) - the customer, organizer and patron of the construction of a Catholic church or the customer and donor of a work of fine or decorative art decorating the temple.

In the photo - Piero della Francesca "Altar of Montefeltro". On the right, on his knees, the donor is the Duke of Montefeltro.

Female portrait

individual portrait- a portrait that includes one character.

intimate portrait- a chamber portrait with a neutral background, expressing a trusting relationship between the artist and the person being portrayed.

historical portrait- a portrait of a historical figure.

chamber portrait- a portrait using a half-length, chest or shoulder image of a person. Usually in a chamber portrait the figure is given against a neutral background.

- (derived from Italian. caricare - to exaggerate) - a satirical or humorous portrait.

colossal portrait- a portrait of huge size (usually in sculpture).

Equestrian portrait- a kind of ceremonial portrait.

Costumed portrait- a portrait in which a person is presented as an allegorical, mythological, historical, theatrical or literary character. Typically, the names of such portraits include the words "in the form" or "in the image."

Coronation portrait- a solemn image of the monarch on the day of accession to the throne, in coronation regalia, usually in full growth.

Ktitorsky portrait- a kind of religious portrait, in which the person who made the donation was depicted in the picture.
Ktitor (from the Greek κτήτωρ - owner, founder, creator) - a person who allocated funds for the construction or repair of an Orthodox church or monastery, or for decorating it with icons, frescoes, objects of decorative and applied art.
In the photo - Ktitor Radivoi with his family and Metropolitan Kalevit with a model of the church (Kremikovskiy Monastery).

— a portrait of a small format (up to 20 cm), usually it is watercolor, ink or lottery graphics: etching, lithography, woodcut, etc.
A miniature portrait can be chamber or formal, have a plot basis or not. As in a large portrait, the depicted face can be placed against a neutral, landscape background or in an interior. And although the miniature portrait is subject to the same basic laws of development and the same aesthetic canons as the entire portrait genre as a whole, but differs from it both in terms of the essence of the artistic solution and in its area of application, the miniature is always more intimate.

- a kind of costumed portrait in which a person is presented as a mythological character.

male portrait

hunting portrait

Ceremonial portrait, representative portrait- a portrait showing a person in full growth, on a horse, standing or sitting. Usually in a formal portrait, the figure is given against an architectural or landscape background.

Depending on the attributes, the ceremonial portrait can be: coronation; throne; equestrian; soldier in the form of a commander.
The hunting portrait adjoins the front one, but it can also be chamber.

Companion portrait- two portraits painted on different canvases, but coordinated among themselves in composition, format and color. Usually paired portraits depict spouses.

- a kind of ceremonial portrait, in which the person being portrayed is usually depicted to the waist and with a large number of accessories.

portrait-painting- a portrait, where the person portrayed is presented in a semantic and plot relationship with the surrounding household items, nature, architecture, people, etc.

Portrait walk- a portrait of a walking person against the backdrop of nature. This type of portrait originated in England in the 18th century and gained popularity in the era of sentimentalism.

Posthumous portrait, retrospective portrait- a portrait made after the death of the depicted people according to their lifetime images or completely composed by the author.

Family portrait

Soviet portrait - the image of a new man, the builder of communism, the bearer of such qualities as collectivism, socialist humanism, internationalism, revolutionary purposefulness.

throne portrait- a kind of ceremonial portrait - a solemn image of a monarch sitting on a throne.

Caricature- a satirical or good-natured-humorous image in which, while observing external similarities, the most characteristic features of a person are changed and highlighted.

Since the social position of the portrayed person influenced certain methods of presenting his image, sometimes the class principle was used in the classification:

merchant portrait
portrait of a clergyman
jester's portrait
portrait of a poet

© Material prepared by ART-SPb studio

A portrait is an image or description of a person or a group of people that exists or existed in reality. A portrait is one of the main genres of painting, sculpture, graphics, its meaning is precisely to reproduce the individual qualities of a particular person.

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"Portrait in painting?. Types of a portrait of a person.

Portrait in painting Types of a portrait of a person

Portrait - an image or description of a person or group of people that exists or has existed in reality . Portrait - this is one of the main genres of painting, sculpture, graphics, its meaning is precisely to reproduce the individual qualities of a particular person.

The name of this genre comes from an old French expression meaning "to play something the hell out of it."

pencil

watercolor

ENGRAVED

PORTRAIT

SCULPTURAL

PICTURESQUE

( OIL, TEMPERA, GOUASH)

RAISED

(on medals and coins)

Watercolor

portrait

Pencil portrait

Engraving

picturesque portrait

(oil)

sculptural portrait

Relief

PORTRAIT TYPES:

chamber; psychological; social; front door; self-portrait.
chamber;
psychological;
social;
front door;
individual, double, group;
self-portrait.

chamber portrait - portrait using waistband, chest or shoulder image. The figure in a chamber portrait is usually given against a neutral background.

Psychological picture It is intended to show the depth of the inner world and experiences of a person, to reflect the fullness of his personality, to capture in an instant the endless movement of human feelings and actions.

social portrait allows you to comprehend the content of professional activity, spending free time, to assess the personality of a person, based on the characteristics of the environment in which he lives.

Ceremonial portrait - a portrait showing a person in full growth, on a horse, standing or sitting. Usually in a formal portrait, the figure is given against an architectural or landscape background.