School encyclopedia. A brief excursion into the history of portraiture What is a portrait in painting definition

The word “portrait” is very common in our vocabulary. We use it in relation to painting, to literature, to criminalistics, and also just in everyday life. In this regard, there are various types of portraits that relate to a particular area of ​​life or art. What is the characteristic of a portrait, what are its features, what is its uniqueness in comparison with other genres of creativity? Let's consider these questions in more detail.

What is a portrait

This term refers to the image of a person who lives now, lived earlier, or is a fictional character in a story or story. In art, portraits can be represented in sculpture or engraving. There are also types of portraits that relate to writing. These are descriptions of characters in works, characteristics of certain people, criminal data about a particular individual, information about which is needed. Still, various types of portraits are considered the most popular. They differ from each other in style, colors, parameters, features of applying paints, proportions and structure.

Parameters that a portrait can transmit

This classification implies the following points: a head portrait (only the head of a person is depicted on it); bust portraits or busts (a person is drawn or molded to the chest); images of people to the waist; a drawing that shows us a man up to the knee; Finally, full-length paintings. If we consider the types of portraits in terms of the angle of rotation of the model that is depicted, then we highlight the following points. In the portrait, a person can be facing us - this is the front. His face or figure can be turned to us in three quarters or be sideways to the audience - this is a profile. Rarely in painting are portraits where a person has his back turned to us. In all these cases, the main criterion for a portrait is the maximum similarity of the model that posed with the result that was obtained on the canvas of the creator or in his sculpture. This should convey as much as possible not only static facial features and proportions, but also the emotional aura of the one who is depicted.

How people were portrayed in ancient times

The very first types of portraits in painting are sculptures. They are found throughout the entire Ancient East, as well as in ancient countries. Such works of art in those days were made for people who occupied important places in society. They were rulers, public figures and creators. Sculptures have always accurately conveyed the emotional color of the one who was depicted with their help. Often such creations became tombstones for their owners. The sculptures of these ancient times allow us to restore the picture of the past and understand what kind of people lived in those days.

medieval painting

In the era of the Middle Ages, certain types of portraits appear in the visual arts. Rulers, church leaders and important secular people are already depicted on canvas. It was almost impossible to distinguish the faces in such portraits - they all had similar features, however, like the figures of people. The picture always conveyed more of an atmosphere that was saturated with religion and theology. Donor portraits were popular. They depicted a person who made a donation for a particular Catholic church. He was always surrounded by cherubs or with Jesus in his arms, like the Virgin Mary. An analogue of such images were ktitor portraits, which were popular not only among Catholics, but also in the Orthodox world.

Renaissance and later centuries

From about the 15th century, people realized that the portrait is an art form, and not just a means of conveying information. Since then, the creative boundaries of society have expanded significantly. Allegorical portraits became popular, where the model was always depicted in clothes that conveyed her emotions and character, and often such paintings were greatly exaggerated. A little later (18th century), artists began to draw. People were depicted on them both in full growth and chest-deep. The essence of the work was that the whole picture had a certain color. It was either an aura of tenderness, or some kind of brutal picture, etc. Also in the Renaissance, various types of subjective portraits arose. And now we will consider what exactly such masterpieces are characterized by.

A portrait painted "from the head"

This term refers to those pictures of people in which they are depicted not as they look in reality, but as they appear to the artist. The Creator can change proportions, change facial features, make a person more cheerful or sadder. Often, in order to draw a model is not required at all. The artist can restore pictures of reality and his fantasies in his head, and then transfer it all to the canvas. Nowadays, there are separate types of subjective portraits from painting. These include the following: an identikit, the restoration of the facial features of the deceased thanks to the technique and memory of eyewitnesses, the application of makeup on the face of one person so that it becomes like another.

Our days

The types of portraits that are found today are very different from those that were popular in society earlier. All people today are photographed, not painted, because their features and emotions are transmitted with maximum accuracy. Among modern portraits there are also genre portraits: public, intimate, individual, chamber, as well as selfies - the most common portrait of our time.

In today's post, I would like to dwell on a brief history of the development of portraiture. It is not possible to fully cover all the material on this topic in the limited volume of the post, so I did not set such a task.

A short digression into the history of portraiture

Portrait(from French portrait) - this is a genre of fine art, as well as works of this genre that show the appearance of a particular person. The portrait conveys individual characteristics, unique features inherent in only one model (a model is a person who poses for a master while working on a work of art).

"Parisian". Fresco from the Palace of Knossos, 16th century BC

But external similarity is not the only and, perhaps, not the most important property inherent in a portrait . A real portrait painter is not limited to reproducing the external features of his model, he strives convey the properties of her character, reveal her inner, spiritual world . It is also very important to show the social status of the person being portrayed, to create a typical image of a representative of a certain era.
As a genre, the portrait appeared several millennia ago in ancient art. Among the frescoes of the famous Palace of Knossos, found by archaeologists during excavations on the island of Crete, there are a number of picturesque female images dating back to the 16th century BC. Although the researchers called these images "court ladies", we do not know who the Cretan masters tried to show - goddesses, priestesses or noble ladies dressed in elegant dresses.
The most famous was the portrait of a young woman, called by scientists "Parisian". We see in front of us a profile (according to the traditions of the art of that time) image of a young woman, very coquettish and not neglecting makeup, as evidenced by her dark-rimmed eyes and brightly painted lips.
The artists who created fresco portraits of their contemporaries did not delve into the characteristics of the models, and the external similarity in these images is very relative.

"Portrait of a young Roman", early 3rd century AD

In Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, easel painting did not exist, so the art of portraiture was expressed mainly in sculpture. Ancient masters created plastic images of poets, philosophers, military leaders and politicians. These works are characterized by idealization, and at the same time, images that are very accurate in their psychological characteristics are also found among them.
Of great interest are the picturesque portraits created in Egypt in the 1st-4th centuries AD. According to the place of discovery (the tombs of Khavara north of Cairo and the necropolis of the Fayum oasis, which was called Arsinoe under the Ptolemies), they are called Fayum. These images performed ritual and magical functions. They appeared in the Hellenistic era, when Ancient Egypt was captured by the Romans. These portrait images, made on wooden boards or on canvas, were placed together with the mummy in the tomb of the deceased.
In the Fayum portraits, we see Egyptians, Syrians, Nubians, Jews, Greeks and Romans who lived in Egypt in the 1st-4th centuries AD. From Ancient Rome to Egypt, the custom came to keep portraits of the owners painted on wooden boards, as well as sculptural masks of deceased relatives, in the house.

Portrait of a Fayum mummy

Fayum portraits were created using the tempera or encaustic technique, which is especially characteristic of earlier images. Encaustic is painting with paints, where the main link was wax. The artists used melted wax paints (traces of dripping of such paints were preserved on many boards with portrait images). Such a technique required special techniques. On the areas of the cheeks, chin and nose, the paint was applied in dense layers, and the rest of the face and hair were painted with a more liquid paint. Masters used thin planks of sycamore (mulberry fig tree) and Lebanese cedar for portraits.

G. Bellini. Donor Portrait. Fragment

Among the most famous encaustic portraits are the "Portrait of a Man" (second half of the 1st century AD) and "Portrait of an Elderly Man" (end of the 1st century AD), which are lifetime images. In these works, the skillful light-and-shadow modeling and the use of color reflex are striking. Probably, the masters who painted the portraits, unknown to us, went through the Hellenistic school of painting. Two other paintings were executed in the same manner - "Portrait of a Nubian" and a beautiful female image, the so-called. "Lady Alina" (2nd century AD). The last portrait is made on canvas with a brush and liquid tempera.
During the Middle Ages, when art was subordinated to the church, mainly religious images were created in painting. But even at this time, some artists painted psychologically accurate portraits. Images of donors (donors, customers), who were shown most often in profile, facing God, the Madonna or a saint, were widely used. The images of the donors had an undoubted external resemblance to the originals, but did not go beyond the iconographic canons, playing a secondary role in the composition. The profile images coming from the icon retained their dominant positions even when the portrait began to acquire independent significance.
The heyday of the portrait genre began in the Renaissance, when the main value of the world was an active and purposeful person, able to change this world and go against the odds. In the 15th century, artists began to create independent portraits, which showed models against the backdrop of panoramic majestic landscapes. Such is the "Portrait of a Boy" by B. Pinturicchio.

B. Pinturicchio. "Portrait of a Boy", Art Gallery, Dresden

Nevertheless, the presence of fragments of nature in the portraits does not create integrity, unity of a person and the world around him, the person being portrayed seems to obscure the natural landscape. Only in portraits of the 16th century does harmony appear, a kind of microcosm.

Many famous masters of the Renaissance turned to portraiture, including Botticelli, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci. The greatest work of world art was the famous masterpiece of Leonardo - the portrait "Mona Lisa" ("La Gioconda", c. 1503), in which many portrait painters of subsequent generations saw a role model.
A huge role in the development of the European portrait genre was played by Titian, who created a whole gallery of images of his contemporaries: poets, scientists, clergy, rulers. In these works, the great Italian master acted as a subtle psychologist and an excellent connoisseur of the human soul.

Titian: Empress Isabella of Portugal.

During the Renaissance, many artists who created altar and mythological compositions turned to the portrait genre. The psychological portraits of the Dutch painter Jan van Eyck ("Timothy", 1432; "The Man in the Red Turban", 1433) are distinguished by a deep penetration into the inner world of the model. The recognized master of the portrait genre was the German artist Albrecht Dürer, whose self-portraits still delight the audience and serve as an example for artists.

Albrecht Dürer, Self-portrait

During the Renaissance, various forms of portraiture appeared in European painting. The bust portrait was very popular at that time, although half-length, generational images and full-length portraits also appeared. Noble married couples ordered paired portraits, in which the models were depicted on different canvases, but both compositions were united by a common concept, color, and landscape background. A vivid example of paired portraits is the images of the Duke and Duchess of Urbino (Federigo da Montefeltro and Battista Sforza, 1465), created by the Italian painter Piero della Francesca.
Group portraits were also widely used, when the artist showed several models on one canvas. An example of such a work is "Portrait of Pope Paul III with Alessandro and Ottavio Farnese" (1545-1546) by Titian.

According to the nature of the image, portraits began to be divided into ceremonial and intimate. The first were created with the aim of exalting and glorifying the people represented on them. Ceremonial portraits were ordered from famous artists by the reigning persons and members of their families, courtiers, clergymen, who occupied the upper rungs of the hierarchical ladder.
Creating ceremonial portraits, the painters portrayed men in rich uniforms embroidered with gold. The ladies who posed for the artist wore the most luxurious dresses and adorned themselves with jewels. The background played a special role in such portraits. The masters painted their models against the background of the landscape, architectural elements (arches, columns) and lush draperies.
The largest master of the ceremonial portrait was the Fleming P.P. Rubens, who worked at the royal courts of many states. His noble and wealthy contemporaries dreamed that the painter would capture them on his canvases. Rubens' custom-made portraits, striking in their richness of colors and virtuosity of drawing, are somewhat idealized and cold. The images of relatives and friends that the artist created for himself are full of warm and sincere feelings, they do not have the desire to flatter the model, as in formal portraits for wealthy customers.

Rubens' student and follower was the talented Flemish painter A. van Dyck, who created a gallery of portrait images of his contemporaries: scientists, lawyers, doctors, artists, merchants, military leaders, clergy, courtiers. These realistic images subtly convey the individual uniqueness of the models.
The portraits made by van Dyck in the late period, when the artist worked at the court of the English king Charles, are less artistically perfect, because the master, who received many orders, could not cope with them and entrusted the image of some details to his assistants. But even at this time, van Dyck painted a number of rather successful paintings (Louvre portrait of Charles I, c. 1635; Three Children of Charles I, 1635).

A. van Dyck. "The Three Children of Charles I", 1635, Royal Collection, Windsor Castle

In the 17th century, an important place in European painting was occupied by an intimate (chamber) portrait, the purpose of which is to show the state of mind of a person, his feelings and emotions. The recognized master of this type of portrait was the Dutch artist Rembrandt, who painted many heartfelt images. "Portrait of an old woman" (1654), "Portrait of the son of Titus reading" (1657), "Hendrikje Stoffels at the window" (portrait of the artist's second wife, c. 1659) are imbued with sincere feeling. These works present to the viewer ordinary people who have neither noble ancestors nor wealth. But for Rembrandt, who opened a new page in the history of the portrait genre, it was important to convey the kindness of his model, her truly human qualities.

Unknown artist. Parsuna "Sovereign of All Rus' Ivan IV the Terrible", late 17th century.

Rembrandt's mastery also manifested itself in his large-format group portraits (Night Watch, 1642; Sindics, 1662), which convey different temperaments and vivid human personalities.
One of the most remarkable European portrait painters of the 17th century was the Spanish artist D. Velasquez, who painted not only a great many ceremonial portraits representing the Spanish kings, their wives and children, but also a number of intimate images of ordinary people. The tragic images of court dwarfs are addressed to the best feelings of the viewer - wise and restrained or embittered, but always retaining a sense of human dignity ("Portrait of the jester Sebastiano Mora", ca. 1648).

The portrait genre was further developed in the 18th century. The portrait, unlike the landscape, gave artists a good income. Many painters involved in the creation of ceremonial portraits, trying to flatter a rich and noble customer, tried to highlight the most attractive features of his appearance and obscure the shortcomings.
But the most courageous and talented craftsmen were not afraid of the wrath of the rulers and showed people as they really were, not hiding their physical and moral shortcomings. In this sense, the famous "Portrait of the Family of King Charles IV" (1801) by the famous Spanish painter and graphic artist F. Goya is interesting. The National School of Portraiture originated in England. Its largest representatives are the artists J. Reynolds and T. Gainsborough, who worked in the 18th century. Their traditions were inherited by younger English masters: J. Romney, J. Hopner, J. Opie.
An important place was occupied by the portrait in the art of France. One of the most talented artists of the second half of the 18th - the first quarter of the 19th century was J.L. David, who created, along with paintings of the ancient and historical genre, many beautiful portraits. Among the master's masterpieces are an unusually expressive image of Madame Recamier (1800) and a romantically elevated portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte at the St. Bernard Pass (1800).

An unsurpassed master of the portrait genre was J.O.D. Ingres, who glorified his name with ceremonial portraits, distinguished by sonorous colors and graceful lines.
Fine examples of a romantic portrait were presented to the world by such French artists as T. Gericault, E. Delacroix.
French realists (J.F. Millet, C. Corot, G. Courbet), impressionists (E. Degas, O. Renoir) and post-impressionists (P. Cezanne, V. van Gogh) expressed their attitude to life and art in portraits.
Representatives of modernist movements that emerged in the 20th century also turned to the portrait genre. Many portraits were left to us by the famous French artist Pablo Picasso. From these works, one can trace how the master's work developed from the so-called. blue period to cubism.

In his "Blue Period" (1901-1904), he creates portraits and genre types in which he develops the theme of loneliness, grief, the doom of a person, penetrating the hero's spiritual world and his hostile environment. Such is the portrait of the artist's friend - the poet X. Sabartes (1901, Moscow, Pushkin Museum).

A significant contribution to the development of Russian portraiture was made by the talented artist of the first half of the 18th century, I.N. Nikitin, who, with the skill of a psychologist, showed in his "Portrait of an Outdoor Hetman" (1720s) a complex, multifaceted image of a man of the Petrine era.

The painting of the second half of the 18th century is associated with the names of such famous portrait painters as F.S. Rokotov, who created many spiritualized images of his contemporaries (portrait of V.I. Maikov, c. 1765), D.G. Levitsky, the author of beautiful ceremonial and chamber portraits that convey the integrity of the nature of models (portraits of pupils of the Smolny Institute, c. 1773-1776), V.L. Borovikovsky, whose amazingly lyrical portraits of women still delight viewers.

Borovikovsky, Vladimir Lukich: Portrait of Elena Alexandrovna Naryshkina.

The 1860s-1870s were the time of the formation of realism in Russian painting, which was most clearly manifested in the work of the Wanderers. During this period, in the portrait genre, the portrait-type enjoyed great success among the democratic-minded public, in which the model received not only a psychological assessment, but was also considered from the point of view of her place in society. In such works, the authors paid equal attention to both the individual and typical features of the subjects portrayed.
An example of such a portrait-type was painted in 1867 by the artist N.N. Ge portrait of A.I. Herzen. Looking at the photographs of the democratic writer, one can understand how accurately the master caught the external resemblance. But the painter did not stop there, he captured on the canvas the spiritual life of a person striving to achieve happiness for his people in the struggle. In the image of Herzen, Ge showed the collective type of the best people of his era.

N.N. Ge portrait of A.I. Herzen

The traditions of Ge's portraiture were picked up by such masters as V.G. Perov (portrait of F.M. Dostoevsky, 1872), I.N. Kramskoy (portrait of L.N. Tolstoy, 1873). These artists created a whole gallery of images of their outstanding contemporaries.
Remarkable type portraits were painted by I.E. Repin, who managed to very accurately convey the unique individuality of each person. With the help of correctly noticed gestures, postures, facial expressions, the master gives a social and spiritual description of the portrayed. A significant and strong-willed person appears in the portrait of N.I. Pirogov. The deep artistic talent and passion of nature is seen by the viewer on his canvas depicting the actress P.A. Strepetov (1882).

Portrait of the actress Pelageya Antipovna Strepetova as Elizabeth. 1881

Glazunov_ Portrait of Ilya Reznik, 1999

A huge contribution to the development of Russian portraiture was made by A.M. Shilov ("Portrait of Academician I.L. Knunyants", 1974; "Portrait of Olya", 1974).

A.M. Shilov. "Portrait of Olya", 1974

Materials used in the preparation of the material

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.

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.

According to the format, portraits are distinguished:

• head (shoulder);
• chest;
• waist;
• on the thigh;
• generational;
• in full growth.

head portrait

Half-length portrait

full length portrait

bust portrait

Hip-length portrait

By turning the head, portraits are:

• full face (fr. en face, “from the face”)
• quarter turn right

or left

• half turn
• three quarters
• in profile

Exercise:

Your task is to create a picturesque portrait. It can be a self-portrait or a portrait of someone close to you.

Think about what color combinations will best express the character and state of mind.

In today's post, I would like to dwell on a brief history of the development of portraiture. It is not possible to fully cover all the material on this topic in the limited volume of the post, so I did not set such a task.

A short digression into the history of portraiture

Portrait(from French portrait) - this is a genre of fine art, as well as works of this genre that show the appearance of a particular person. The portrait conveys individual characteristics, unique features inherent in only one model (a model is a person who poses for a master while working on a work of art).

"Parisian". Fresco from the Palace of Knossos, 16th century BC

But external similarity is not the only and, perhaps, not the most important property inherent in a portrait . A real portrait painter is not limited to reproducing the external features of his model, he strives convey the properties of her character, reveal her inner, spiritual world . It is also very important to show the social status of the person being portrayed, to create a typical image of a representative of a certain era.
As a genre, the portrait appeared several millennia ago in ancient art. Among the frescoes of the famous Palace of Knossos, found by archaeologists during excavations on the island of Crete, there are a number of picturesque female images dating back to the 16th century BC. Although the researchers called these images "court ladies", we do not know who the Cretan masters tried to show - goddesses, priestesses or noble ladies dressed in elegant dresses.
The most famous was the portrait of a young woman, called by scientists "Parisian". We see in front of us a profile (according to the traditions of the art of that time) image of a young woman, very coquettish and not neglecting makeup, as evidenced by her dark-rimmed eyes and brightly painted lips.
The artists who created fresco portraits of their contemporaries did not delve into the characteristics of the models, and the external similarity in these images is very relative.

"Portrait of a young Roman", early 3rd century AD

In Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, easel painting did not exist, so the art of portraiture was expressed mainly in sculpture. Ancient masters created plastic images of poets, philosophers, military leaders and politicians. These works are characterized by idealization, and at the same time, images that are very accurate in their psychological characteristics are also found among them.
Of great interest are the picturesque portraits created in Egypt in the 1st-4th centuries AD. According to the place of discovery (the tombs of Khavara north of Cairo and the necropolis of the Fayum oasis, which was called Arsinoe under the Ptolemies), they are called Fayum. These images performed ritual and magical functions. They appeared in the Hellenistic era, when Ancient Egypt was captured by the Romans. These portrait images, made on wooden boards or on canvas, were placed together with the mummy in the tomb of the deceased.
In the Fayum portraits, we see Egyptians, Syrians, Nubians, Jews, Greeks and Romans who lived in Egypt in the 1st-4th centuries AD. From Ancient Rome to Egypt, the custom came to keep portraits of the owners painted on wooden boards, as well as sculptural masks of deceased relatives, in the house.

Portrait of a Fayum mummy

Fayum portraits were created using the tempera or encaustic technique, which is especially characteristic of earlier images. Encaustic is painting with paints, where the main link was wax. The artists used melted wax paints (traces of dripping of such paints were preserved on many boards with portrait images). Such a technique required special techniques. On the areas of the cheeks, chin and nose, the paint was applied in dense layers, and the rest of the face and hair were painted with a more liquid paint. Masters used thin planks of sycamore (mulberry fig tree) and Lebanese cedar for portraits.

G. Bellini. Donor Portrait. Fragment

Among the most famous encaustic portraits are the "Portrait of a Man" (second half of the 1st century AD) and "Portrait of an Elderly Man" (end of the 1st century AD), which are lifetime images. In these works, the skillful light-and-shadow modeling and the use of color reflex are striking. Probably, the masters who painted the portraits, unknown to us, went through the Hellenistic school of painting. Two other paintings were executed in the same manner - "Portrait of a Nubian" and a beautiful female image, the so-called. "Lady Alina" (2nd century AD). The last portrait is made on canvas with a brush and liquid tempera.
During the Middle Ages, when art was subordinated to the church, mainly religious images were created in painting. But even at this time, some artists painted psychologically accurate portraits. Images of donors (donors, customers), who were shown most often in profile, facing God, the Madonna or a saint, were widely used. The images of the donors had an undoubted external resemblance to the originals, but did not go beyond the iconographic canons, playing a secondary role in the composition. The profile images coming from the icon retained their dominant positions even when the portrait began to acquire independent significance.
The heyday of the portrait genre began in the Renaissance, when the main value of the world was an active and purposeful person, able to change this world and go against the odds. In the 15th century, artists began to create independent portraits, which showed models against the backdrop of panoramic majestic landscapes. Such is the "Portrait of a Boy" by B. Pinturicchio.

B. Pinturicchio. "Portrait of a Boy", Art Gallery, Dresden

Nevertheless, the presence of fragments of nature in the portraits does not create integrity, unity of a person and the world around him, the person being portrayed seems to obscure the natural landscape. Only in portraits of the 16th century does harmony appear, a kind of microcosm.

Many famous masters of the Renaissance turned to portraiture, including Botticelli, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci. The greatest work of world art was the famous masterpiece of Leonardo - the portrait "Mona Lisa" ("La Gioconda", c. 1503), in which many portrait painters of subsequent generations saw a role model.
A huge role in the development of the European portrait genre was played by Titian, who created a whole gallery of images of his contemporaries: poets, scientists, clergy, rulers. In these works, the great Italian master acted as a subtle psychologist and an excellent connoisseur of the human soul.

Titian: Empress Isabella of Portugal.

During the Renaissance, many artists who created altar and mythological compositions turned to the portrait genre. The psychological portraits of the Dutch painter Jan van Eyck ("Timothy", 1432; "The Man in the Red Turban", 1433) are distinguished by a deep penetration into the inner world of the model. The recognized master of the portrait genre was the German artist Albrecht Dürer, whose self-portraits still delight the audience and serve as an example for artists.

Albrecht Dürer, Self-portrait

During the Renaissance, various forms of portraiture appeared in European painting. The bust portrait was very popular at that time, although half-length, generational images and full-length portraits also appeared. Noble married couples ordered paired portraits, in which the models were depicted on different canvases, but both compositions were united by a common concept, color, and landscape background. A vivid example of paired portraits is the images of the Duke and Duchess of Urbino (Federigo da Montefeltro and Battista Sforza, 1465), created by the Italian painter Piero della Francesca.
Group portraits were also widely used, when the artist showed several models on one canvas. An example of such a work is "Portrait of Pope Paul III with Alessandro and Ottavio Farnese" (1545-1546) by Titian.

According to the nature of the image, portraits began to be divided into ceremonial and intimate. The first were created with the aim of exalting and glorifying the people represented on them. Ceremonial portraits were ordered from famous artists by the reigning persons and members of their families, courtiers, clergymen, who occupied the upper rungs of the hierarchical ladder.
Creating ceremonial portraits, the painters portrayed men in rich uniforms embroidered with gold. The ladies who posed for the artist wore the most luxurious dresses and adorned themselves with jewels. The background played a special role in such portraits. The masters painted their models against the background of the landscape, architectural elements (arches, columns) and lush draperies.
The largest master of the ceremonial portrait was the Fleming P.P. Rubens, who worked at the royal courts of many states. His noble and wealthy contemporaries dreamed that the painter would capture them on his canvases. Rubens' custom-made portraits, striking in their richness of colors and virtuosity of drawing, are somewhat idealized and cold. The images of relatives and friends that the artist created for himself are full of warm and sincere feelings, they do not have the desire to flatter the model, as in formal portraits for wealthy customers.

Rubens' student and follower was the talented Flemish painter A. van Dyck, who created a gallery of portrait images of his contemporaries: scientists, lawyers, doctors, artists, merchants, military leaders, clergy, courtiers. These realistic images subtly convey the individual uniqueness of the models.
The portraits made by van Dyck in the late period, when the artist worked at the court of the English king Charles, are less artistically perfect, because the master, who received many orders, could not cope with them and entrusted the image of some details to his assistants. But even at this time, van Dyck painted a number of rather successful paintings (Louvre portrait of Charles I, c. 1635; Three Children of Charles I, 1635).

A. van Dyck. "The Three Children of Charles I", 1635, Royal Collection, Windsor Castle

In the 17th century, an important place in European painting was occupied by an intimate (chamber) portrait, the purpose of which is to show the state of mind of a person, his feelings and emotions. The recognized master of this type of portrait was the Dutch artist Rembrandt, who painted many heartfelt images. "Portrait of an old woman" (1654), "Portrait of the son of Titus reading" (1657), "Hendrikje Stoffels at the window" (portrait of the artist's second wife, c. 1659) are imbued with sincere feeling. These works present to the viewer ordinary people who have neither noble ancestors nor wealth. But for Rembrandt, who opened a new page in the history of the portrait genre, it was important to convey the kindness of his model, her truly human qualities.

Unknown artist. Parsuna "Sovereign of All Rus' Ivan IV the Terrible", late 17th century.

Rembrandt's mastery also manifested itself in his large-format group portraits (Night Watch, 1642; Sindics, 1662), which convey different temperaments and vivid human personalities.
One of the most remarkable European portrait painters of the 17th century was the Spanish artist D. Velasquez, who painted not only a great many ceremonial portraits representing the Spanish kings, their wives and children, but also a number of intimate images of ordinary people. The tragic images of court dwarfs are addressed to the best feelings of the viewer - wise and restrained or embittered, but always retaining a sense of human dignity ("Portrait of the jester Sebastiano Mora", ca. 1648).

The portrait genre was further developed in the 18th century. The portrait, unlike the landscape, gave artists a good income. Many painters involved in the creation of ceremonial portraits, trying to flatter a rich and noble customer, tried to highlight the most attractive features of his appearance and obscure the shortcomings.
But the most courageous and talented craftsmen were not afraid of the wrath of the rulers and showed people as they really were, not hiding their physical and moral shortcomings. In this sense, the famous "Portrait of the Family of King Charles IV" (1801) by the famous Spanish painter and graphic artist F. Goya is interesting. The National School of Portraiture originated in England. Its largest representatives are the artists J. Reynolds and T. Gainsborough, who worked in the 18th century. Their traditions were inherited by younger English masters: J. Romney, J. Hopner, J. Opie.
An important place was occupied by the portrait in the art of France. One of the most talented artists of the second half of the 18th - the first quarter of the 19th century was J.L. David, who created, along with paintings of the ancient and historical genre, many beautiful portraits. Among the master's masterpieces are an unusually expressive image of Madame Recamier (1800) and a romantically elevated portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte at the St. Bernard Pass (1800).

An unsurpassed master of the portrait genre was J.O.D. Ingres, who glorified his name with ceremonial portraits, distinguished by sonorous colors and graceful lines.
Fine examples of a romantic portrait were presented to the world by such French artists as T. Gericault, E. Delacroix.
French realists (J.F. Millet, C. Corot, G. Courbet), impressionists (E. Degas, O. Renoir) and post-impressionists (P. Cezanne, V. van Gogh) expressed their attitude to life and art in portraits.
Representatives of modernist movements that emerged in the 20th century also turned to the portrait genre. Many portraits were left to us by the famous French artist Pablo Picasso. From these works, one can trace how the master's work developed from the so-called. blue period to cubism.

In his "Blue Period" (1901-1904), he creates portraits and genre types in which he develops the theme of loneliness, grief, the doom of a person, penetrating the hero's spiritual world and his hostile environment. Such is the portrait of the artist's friend - the poet X. Sabartes (1901, Moscow, Pushkin Museum).

A significant contribution to the development of Russian portraiture was made by the talented artist of the first half of the 18th century, I.N. Nikitin, who, with the skill of a psychologist, showed in his "Portrait of an Outdoor Hetman" (1720s) a complex, multifaceted image of a man of the Petrine era.

The painting of the second half of the 18th century is associated with the names of such famous portrait painters as F.S. Rokotov, who created many spiritualized images of his contemporaries (portrait of V.I. Maikov, c. 1765), D.G. Levitsky, the author of beautiful ceremonial and chamber portraits that convey the integrity of the nature of models (portraits of pupils of the Smolny Institute, c. 1773-1776), V.L. Borovikovsky, whose amazingly lyrical portraits of women still delight viewers.

Borovikovsky, Vladimir Lukich: Portrait of Elena Alexandrovna Naryshkina.

The 1860s-1870s were the time of the formation of realism in Russian painting, which was most clearly manifested in the work of the Wanderers. During this period, in the portrait genre, the portrait-type enjoyed great success among the democratic-minded public, in which the model received not only a psychological assessment, but was also considered from the point of view of her place in society. In such works, the authors paid equal attention to both the individual and typical features of the subjects portrayed.
An example of such a portrait-type was painted in 1867 by the artist N.N. Ge portrait of A.I. Herzen. Looking at the photographs of the democratic writer, one can understand how accurately the master caught the external resemblance. But the painter did not stop there, he captured on the canvas the spiritual life of a person striving to achieve happiness for his people in the struggle. In the image of Herzen, Ge showed the collective type of the best people of his era.

N.N. Ge portrait of A.I. Herzen

The traditions of Ge's portraiture were picked up by such masters as V.G. Perov (portrait of F.M. Dostoevsky, 1872), I.N. Kramskoy (portrait of L.N. Tolstoy, 1873). These artists created a whole gallery of images of their outstanding contemporaries.
Remarkable type portraits were painted by I.E. Repin, who managed to very accurately convey the unique individuality of each person. With the help of correctly noticed gestures, postures, facial expressions, the master gives a social and spiritual description of the portrayed. A significant and strong-willed person appears in the portrait of N.I. Pirogov. The deep artistic talent and passion of nature is seen by the viewer on his canvas depicting the actress P.A. Strepetov (1882).

Portrait of the actress Pelageya Antipovna Strepetova as Elizabeth. 1881

Glazunov_ Portrait of Ilya Reznik, 1999

A huge contribution to the development of Russian portraiture was made by A.M. Shilov ("Portrait of Academician I.L. Knunyants", 1974; "Portrait of Olya", 1974).

A.M. Shilov. "Portrait of Olya", 1974

Materials used in the preparation of the material

PORTRAIT IN FINE ART- this is an artistic statement that has content and a way of expression (grammar, style). What is the theme of any portrait? The portrait depicts the external appearance (and through it the inner world) of a specific, real person who existed in the past or exists in the present. The general (invariant) theme of the portrait is the individual life of a person, the individual form of his being. Regardless of how many people are depicted in the portrait - two (pair portrait) or several (group portrait), each of them in the portrait has relative autonomy. A portrait may have two or three themes, etc., but each of them is a theme of an individual life. If the themes lose their independence, the portrait goes beyond its genre specificity. So, for example, if the theme is an event, we have before us not a portrait, but a picture, although its heroes can be portrayed in portraits.

In addition to the theme, the portrait has a general (invariant) plot, such a form of being as contemplation-thinking, intellectual, inner contemplation. In this state, the subject absorbs the whole world of objects and connections in terms of their meaning, meaning, fundamental issues of human existence. Consciousness plunges into itself. In this case, a person is freed from one-sidedness, from the narrowness of passion or random mood. The individual inside himself is full of poetry and fantasy, deep immersion in reflections and thoughts, in his own closed inner world.

Such a state is contraindicated for action, verbal motor activity (in a portrait, a person, as a rule, does not “speak”. In a portrait, a person is silent, but this is eloquent silence. associated with an active motor reaction.The portrait is characterized by animated peace.

A contemplative person assumes a diverse combination of other characteristics - social status, nationality, age, religious and moral signs, character, etc.

The contemplative-reflecting individual is depicted in the portrait in external form. The main thing here is the mirror of the soul, the face, and in the face - the expression of the eyes. The gaze is directed into the distance or goes deep into the soul, it "passes" through the viewer.

What is the aesthetic invariant of the portrait genre? It is noticed that the model in the portrait does not laugh and does not cause laughter. The category of the comic is contraindicated for the "archetype" of the portrait genre. The aesthetic invariant of the portrait is the category of "serious". The portrait is serious. The model in the portrait is depicted in a serious moment of life. The portrait omits what belongs to mere chance, a fleeting situation inherent in a person in real life. In this sense, the portrait, in the words of Hegel, "flatters" the model. There is an intrinsic connection between contemplation-reflection and aesthetic seriousness. When a person is serious, he does not laugh. Where models laugh in a portrait, the portrait genre is on the border with other genres - a sketch, a sketch, a “genre”, etc. The spiritual aspect is the main thing in the portrait. The content of the serious can be both tragic and sublime.

The portrait, like every artistic statement, realizes itself through a compositional form. It is specific to art. The compositional invariant of the portrait is such a construction, as a result of which the face of the model is in the center of the composition, in the focus of the viewer's perception. It is no coincidence that the compositional symptom of the formation of the European portrait genre in the early Renaissance is called “Exiting the profile” in front. Historical canons in the field of portrait composition prescribe a certain interpretation of the central position of the face in relation to the pose, clothing, environment, background, etc.

From the point of view of the content (semantics) of the portrait of the genre, “still life” and “decorative” portraits are considered to be incompatible with its archetype. "Still life" portraits, depicting individuality, interpret it as a "thing", "decorative" - ​​not from the standpoint of the category of "serious", but from the point of view of a "decorative feeling".

The analysis of the "archetype" of the portrait genre in terms of means of expression is carried out at three levels: communicative, aesthetic and compositional. The aesthetic form of expression should only be perfect, harmonious, “beautiful”, the compositional form should “technically” ensure the implementation of the aesthetic and communicative form. The communicative invariant of the portrait genre is the image. The main feature of the image is the similarity with the displayed object, with the model. Similarity is similarity, but not identity. Departure from identity within the boundaries of similarity is not only permissible, but necessary for the purposes of the portrait.

The portrait not only depicts the individuality of a person, but also expresses the individuality of the artistic personality of the author. Portrait - "self-portrait". The artist gets used to the appearance of the model, thanks to which he comprehends the spiritual essence of human individuality. Such comprehension occurs only in an act of empathy (reincarnation) in the process of merging the “I” of the model and the “I” of the author. The result is a new unity, similar to that between the actor and his role. Thanks to this fusion, the model in the portrait looks as if she were actually alive. The animation of the model in the portrait is also one of the features that make up the invariant of the portrait. Since the portrait is always similar to the author in some way, at the same time it is not similar to the model in some way. Similarity and unlikeness are equally important for a portrait.

Why is a portrait created, what is its vital purpose?

A portrait that does not turn a face into a “thing” and does not live only according to some completely abstract formal laws, contains the truth about the individuality of the beholder (both the model and the author). That is why the cognitive function of the portrait is an essential and necessary feature of the portrait genre, its “archetype”. This does not interfere with other ways of using the portrait (memorial, representative, decorative, etc.) in accordance with the typology of portrait art common in art history.

Unlike the invariant (“archetype”), the canonical structure of the portrait does not apply to all eras, but only to some: through the canons, their historical change, the development of the portrait genre takes place. The canon should not be identified with the stamp, it is one of the forms of development of art and its genres. The requirements of the canon apply to all levels of form, which in their entirety characterize the style of the portrait. For example, the style of the avant-garde portrait of the late XIX-XX centuries. characterize such features as “still life”, the expression of the generic principle (not “I”, but “WE”), self-expression, constructive similarity with the model, grotesqueness as the leading aesthetic category. All this speaks of the crisis of the classical canon of the portrait genre in avant-garde art, while maintaining the "archetype".

As a result, we can give the following definition of the portrait genre in its classical form: the portrait reveals the truth of human individuality from the standpoint of the aesthetic category of “serious” and within the framework of the pictorial style through an animated image of the external appearance of a person (the composition of the image is such that the face and eyes are in the center), expressing the reflective-meditative state of the model and the author.

Evgeny Basin