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125-615: Thomas Henry Illidge (26 September 1799 – 13 May 1851) was an English portrait painter . Illidge was born in Birmingham on 26 September 1799, belonging to a family resident near Nantwich , Cheshire . Illidge's father moved to Manchester , and, dying young, left a young family ill-provided for. Illidge was educated in Manchester, and taught drawing. He was subsequently the pupil in succession of Mather Brown and William Bradley . He initially tried landscape painting, but married early, and, as

250-503: A Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian and returned it to El Escorial , two centuries after its removal and, subsequently, The Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando has revealed as its own a long-stored painting, added to another, The Virgin with the Child with the repentant sinners , in addition the institution has an original sketch. In addition, in December 2017, a Virgin with Child , which

375-418: A caricature which attempts to reveal character through exaggeration of physical features. The artist generally attempts a representative portrayal, as Edward Burne-Jones stated, "The only expression allowable in great portraiture is the expression of character and moral quality, not anything temporary, fleeting, or accidental." In most cases, this results in a serious, closed lip stare, with anything beyond

500-400: A client's dissatisfaction with his wife's portrait by retorting, "You brought me a potato, and you expect a peach!" A successful portrait, however, can gain the lifelong gratitude of a client. Count Balthazar was so pleased with the portrait Raphael had created of his wife that he told the artist, "Your image…alone can lighten my cares. That image is my delight; I direct my smiles to it, it

625-455: A client. Managing the sitter's expectations and mood is a serious concern for the portrait artist. As to the faithfulness of the portrait to the sitter's appearance, portraitists are generally consistent in their approach. Clients who sought out Sir Joshua Reynolds knew that they would receive a flattering result, while sitters of Thomas Eakins knew to expect a realistic, unsparing portrait. Some subjects voice strong preferences, others let

750-456: A drawing on paper, which was then enlarged onto canvas by an assistant; he then painted the head himself. The costume in which the client wished to be painted was left at the studio and often with the unfinished canvas sent out to artists specialised in rendering such clothing. In his last years these studio collaborations accounted for some decline in the quality of work. In addition many copies untouched by him, or virtually so, were produced by

875-440: A face. In his notebooks, Leonardo advises on the qualities of light in portrait painting: A very high degree of grace in the light and shadow is added to the faces of those who sit in the doorways of rooms that are dark, where the eyes of the observer see the shadowed part of the face obscured by the shadows of the room, and see the lighted part of the face with the greater brilliance which the air gives it. Through this increase in

1000-593: A figure, after a portrait by Johann Zoffany , of " the King in a Vandyck dress". A confusing number of different pigments used in painting have been called "Vandyke brown" (mostly in English-language sources). Some predate van Dyck, and it is not clear that he used any of them. Van Dyke brown is an early photographic printing process using such a colour. When van Dyck was knighted in 1632, he anglicized his name to Vandyke. The heraldic blazon of his coat of arms

1125-506: A full-face painting. He also placed his self-portrait figure (as an onlooker) in several of his religious paintings. Dürer began making self-portraits at the age of thirteen. Later, Rembrandt would amplify that tradition. In Italy, Masaccio led the way in modernizing the fresco by adopting more realistic perspective. Filippo Lippi paved the way in developing sharper contours and sinuous lines and his pupil Raphael extended realism in Italy to

1250-560: A great patron of artists and an avaricious art collector who invited Leonardo da Vinci to live in France during his later years. The Mona Lisa stayed in France after Leonardo died there. During the Baroque and Rococo periods (17th and 18th centuries, respectively), portraits became even more important records of status and position. In a society dominated increasingly by secular leaders in powerful courts, images of opulently attired figures were

1375-468: A greater variety of poses, lighting, and technique. Rather than producing revolutionary innovations, Raphael's great accomplishment was strengthening and refining the evolving currents of Renaissance art. He was particularly expert in the group portrait. His masterpiece the School of Athens is one of the foremost group frescoes, containing likenesses of Leonardo, Michelangelo, Bramante, and Raphael himself, in

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1500-484: A highly accomplished artist, as shown by his Self-portrait dated 1613–14. He was admitted to the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke as a free master on Saint Luke's day, 18 October 1617. Within a few years he became the chief assistant to Peter Paul Rubens , the leading master painter of Antwerp and the whole of Northern Europe. Rubens operated a large workshop and often relied on sub-contracted artists. His influence on

1625-559: A house called the Kasteel van Rijssel (Castle of Lille ) in the Korte Nieuwstraat. His mother died when he was only 8 years old. At the time the family was living in a more luxurious house in the Korte Nieuwstraat called the Stadt van Ghent (City of Ghent). His artistic talent was evident very early. When he was 10 years old, he started his formal training as a painter with Hendrick van Balen

1750-454: A master. The reason was that in that period his father was experiencing financial difficulties and could use any assistance he could get. It was during the period van Dyck may have started painting the series of panels of Christ and the Apostles in bust-length, although it is also possible that this only happened after his first return from Italy in 1620–21. By the age of fifteen he was already

1875-420: A means to affirm the authority of important individuals. Flemish painters Sir Anthony van Dyck and Peter Paul Rubens excelled at this type of portraiture, while Jan Vermeer produced portraits mostly of the middle class, at work and play indoors. Rubens’ portrait of himself and his first wife (1609) in their wedding attire is a virtuoso example of the couple portrait. Rubens' fame extended beyond his art—he

2000-941: A much higher level in the following decades with his monumental wall paintings. During this time, the betrothal portrait became popular, a particular specialty of Lorenzo Lotto . During the early Renaissance, portrait paintings were generally small and sometimes covered with protective lids, hinged or sliding. During the Renaissance, the Florentine and Milanese nobility, in particular, wanted more realistic representations of themselves. The challenge of creating convincing full and three-quarter views stimulated experimentation and innovation. Sandro Botticelli , Piero della Francesca , Domenico Ghirlandaio , Lorenzo di Credi , and Leonardo da Vinci and other artists expanded their technique accordingly, adding portraiture to traditional religious and classical subjects. Leonardo and Pisanello were among

2125-434: A new level of balance, harmony, and insight, and the greatest artists (Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael) were considered "geniuses", rising far above the tradesman status to valued servants of the court and the church. Many innovations in the various forms of portraiture evolved during this fertile period. The tradition of the portrait miniature began, which remained popular until the age of photography, developing out of

2250-613: A new stylistic language that would enrich the compositional lessons learned from Rubens. He returned to Flanders after about four months, and then left in late 1621 for Italy, where he remained for six years. There he studied the Italian masters while starting a successful career as a portraitist. He was already presenting himself as a figure of consequence, annoying the rather bohemian Northern artist's colony in Rome , says Giovan Pietro Bellori , by appearing with "the pomp of Zeuxis ... his behaviour

2375-423: A normal portrait when sitter and artist are opposite each other. In a self-portrait, a righted handed artist would appear to be holding a brush in the left hand, unless the artist deliberately corrects the image or uses a second reversing mirror while painting. Occasionally, the client or the client's family is unhappy with the resulting portrait and the artist is obliged to re-touch it or do it over or withdraw from

2500-405: A painted portrait is intended to achieve a likeness of the sitter that is recognisable to those who have seen them, and ideally is a very good record of their appearance. In fact this concept has been slow to grow, and it took centuries for artists in different traditions to acquire the distinct skills for painting a good likeness. A well-executed portrait is expected to show the inner essence of

2625-502: A port for ships to the Continent, suggesting that van Dyck did them casually whilst waiting for wind or tide to improve. Probably during his period in Antwerp after his return from Italy, van Dyck began his Iconographie , which became a very large series of prints with half-length portraits of eminent contemporaries. He produced drawings, and for eighteen of the portraits he himself etched

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2750-531: A portrait artist. Van Dyck remained in touch with the English court and helped King Charles's agents in their search for pictures. He sent some of his own works, including a self-portrait (1623) with Endymion Porter , one of Charles's agents, his Rinaldo and Armida (1629), and a religious picture for Queen Henrietta Maria . He had also painted Charles's sister, Queen Elizabeth of Bohemia , at The Hague in 1632. In April of that year, van Dyck returned to London and

2875-404: A repertory of images that were plundered by portrait painters throughout Europe over the next couple of centuries". Van Dyck's brilliant etching style, which depended on open lines and dots, was in marked contrast to that of the other great portraitist in prints of the period, Rembrandt , and had little influence until the 19th century, when it had a great influence on artists such as Whistler in

3000-526: A result, took up portrait-painting as a more profitable endeavour. Illidge was successful as a portrait-painter in the great manufacturing towns of Lancashire , painting many of the civic or financial celebrities of the locality. He was a frequent exhibitor at the Liverpool Academy from 1827. In 1842 he came to London , and was from that time was a constant exhibitor at the Royal Academy . In 1844, on

3125-500: A rich presence of this artist in addition to The Prado's ensemble. The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum preserves the Portrait of Jacques Le Roy , property of The Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection but also on display at the Museum there's a Crucified Christ , and The Bilbao Fine Arts Museum houses a great Lamentation before the dead Christ . In 2008, Patrimonio Nacional of Spain recovered

3250-560: A self-portrait by the writer, mystic, scientist, illuminator, and musician Hildegard of Bingen (1152). As with contemporary coins, there was little attempt at a likeness. Stone tomb monuments spread in the Romanesque period. Between 1350 and 1400, secular figures began to reappear in frescos and panel paintings , such as in Master Theodoric 's Charles IV receiving fealty , and portraits once again became clear likenesses. Around

3375-456: A slight smile being rather rare historically. Or as Charles Dickens put it, "there are only two styles of portrait painting: the serious and the smirk." Even given these limitations, a full range of subtle emotions is possible from quiet menace to gentle contentment. However, with the mouth relatively neutral, much of the facial expression needs to be created through the eyes and eyebrows. As author and artist Gordon C. Aymar states, "the eyes are

3500-477: A well-to-do silk merchant. His mother was Maria Cupers (or Cuypers), daughter of Dirk Cupers (or Cuypers) and Catharina Conincx and the second wife of Anthony's father. He was baptised on 23 March 1599 (as Anthonio). His parental grandfather, also called Anthoni, had commenced his career as a painter and had been registered in 1556 as a master painter at the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke as a pupil of Jan Ghendrick, alias van Cleve. The elder brother of his grandfather

3625-419: A wide-ranging palette of colors, as with Pierre-Auguste Renoir 's Mme. Charpentier and her children , 1878 or restrict themselves to mostly white or black, as with Gilbert Stuart 's Portrait of George Washington (1796). Sometimes, the overall size of the portrait is an important consideration. Chuck Close 's enormous portraits created for museum display differ greatly from most portraits designed to fit in

3750-636: Is Quarters 1 & 4. Azure six roundels 3, 2 and 1 Or and for augmentation on a chief Gules a lion passant gardant Or. 2 & 3. Sable a saltire Or. Over all an inescutcheon Or thereon a bend sinister Azure . The coat of arms is crested with a greyhound's head. The British Royal Collection , which still contains many of his paintings, has a total of twenty-six paintings. The National Gallery, London (fourteen works), The Museo del Prado (Spain) (twenty-five Works, such as: Self-portrait with Endymion Porter , The Metal Serpent , Christ Crowned with Thorns , The taking of Christ , Portrait of Mary Ruthven ,

3875-455: Is about four. Portraitists sometimes present their sitters with a portfolio of drawings or photos from which a sitter would select a preferred pose, as did Sir Joshua Reynolds . Some, such as Hans Holbein the Younger make a drawing of the face, then complete the rest of the painting without the sitter. In the 18th century, it would typically take about one year to deliver a completed portrait to

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4000-589: Is also one of the first artists in Europe to sign their work, though he rarely dated them. Later in the 16th century, Titian assumed much the same role, particularly by expanding the variety of poses and sittings of his royal subjects. Titian was perhaps the first great child portraitist. After Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese became leading Venetian artists, helping the transition to Italian Mannerism . The Mannerists contributed many exceptional portraits that emphasized material richness and elegantly complex poses, as in

4125-417: Is another fine example of Rembrandt's mastery of the group painting, in which he bathes the corpse in bright light to draw attention to the center of the painting while the clothing and background merge into black, making the faces of the surgeon and the students standout. It is also the first painting that Rembrandt signed with his full name. In Spain, Diego Velázquez painted Las Meninas (1656), one of

4250-525: Is beloved, often making him kiss and speak to it. –Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo's Ginevra de' Benci ( c.  1474–8 ) is one of the first known three-quarter-view portraits in Italian art. Partly out of interest in the natural world and partly out of interest in the classical cultures of ancient Greece and Rome, portraits—both painted and sculpted—were given an important role in Renaissance society and valued as objects, and as depictions of earthly success and status. Painting in general reached

4375-477: Is kept in The Cerralbo Museum and was previously considered the work of Mateo Cerezo , was revealed as the painter's original after an exhaustive study and restoration project. Finally, The Museum of Fine Arts of Valencia owns an Equestrian Portrait of Don Francisco de Moncada (currently undergoing restoration, April 2020). Tate Britain held the exhibition Van Dyck & Britain in 2009. In 2016

4500-466: Is more than half a face). Occasionally, artists have created composites with views from multiple directions, as with Anthony van Dyck 's triple portrait of Charles I in Three Positions . There are even a few portraits where the front of the subject is not visible at all. Andrew Wyeth 's Christina's World (1948) is a famous example, where the pose of the disabled woman – with her back turned to

4625-579: Is my joy." Portraiture's roots are likely found in prehistoric times, although few of these works survive today. In the art of the ancient civilizations of the Fertile Crescent , especially in Egypt, depictions of rulers and rulers as gods abound. However, most of these were done in a highly stylized fashion, and most in profile, usually on stone, metal, clay, plaster, or crystal. Egyptian portraiture placed relatively little emphasis on likeness, at least until

4750-572: Is named after him. During his lifetime, Charles I granted him a knighthood , and he was buried in St Paul's Cathedral , an indication of his standing at the time of his death. Anthony van Dyck was born in Antwerp on 22 March 1599 as the seventh of 12 children of his parents. He was baptized the next day in the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk (now the Antwerp Cathedral ) His father was Frans van Dyck,

4875-425: Is not possible to document a connection to his studio for any English painter of any significance. Dutchman Adriaen Hanneman (1604–1671) returned to his native city, The Hague in 1638 to become the leading portraitist there. Flemish painter Pieter Thijs studied in van Dyck's workshop as one of van Dyck's last pupils. He became a very successful portrait and history painter in his native Antwerp. Much later,

5000-402: Is now mostly updated ( country house attributions may be more dubious in some cases). The relatively few names of his assistants that are known are Dutch or Flemish. He probably preferred to use trained Flemish artists, as no equivalent English training existed in this period. Van Dyck's enormous influence on English art does not come from a tradition handed down through his pupils. In fact it

5125-569: Is of the Company." A fairly small number of landscape pen and wash drawings or watercolours made in England played an important part in introducing the Flemish watercolour landscape tradition to England. Some are studies, which reappear in the background of paintings, but many are signed and dated and were probably regarded as finished works to be given as presents. Several of the most detailed are of Rye ,

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5250-404: Is particularly useful if the sitter's available time is limited. Otherwise, the general form then a rough likeness is sketched out on the canvas in pencil, charcoal, or thin oil. In many cases, the face is completed first, and the rest afterwards. In the studios of many of the great portrait artists, the master would do only the head and hands, while the clothing and background would be completed by

5375-668: The Etruscans and Greeks, and developed a very strong tradition, linked to their religious use of ancestor portraits, as well as Roman politics. Again, the few painted survivals, in the Fayum portraits , Tomb of Aline and the Severan Tondo , all from Egypt under Roman rule, are clearly provincial productions that reflect Greek rather than Roman styles, but we have a wealth of sculpted heads, including many individualized portraits from middle-class tombs, and thousands of types of coin portraits. Much

5500-645: The Frick Collection in New York had an exhibition "Van Dyck: The Anatomy of Portraiture", the first major survey of the artist's work in the United States in over two decades. The estate of the Earl Spencer at Althorp houses a small collection of van Dycks including War and Peace (Portrait of Sir George Digby, 2nd Earl of Bristol , English Royalist politician with William Russell, 1st Duke of Bedford ), which

5625-748: The Late Antique period the interest in an individual likeness declined considerably, and most portraits in late Roman coins and consular diptychs are hardly individualized at all, although at the same time Early Christian art was evolving fairly standardized images for the depiction of Jesus and the other major figures in Christian art, such as John the Baptist , and Saint Peter . Most early medieval portraits were donor portraits , initially mostly of popes in Roman mosaics , and illuminated manuscripts , an example being

5750-512: The Louvre without success. A list of history paintings produced by van Dyck in England survives. It was compiled by van Dyck's biographer Bellori, based on information from Sir Kenelm Digby . None of these works appear to remain, except the Eros and Psyche done for the King (below). But many other works, rather more religious than mythological, do survive, and though they are very fine, they do not reach

5875-431: The 16th century, oil as a medium spread in popularity throughout Europe, allowing for more sumptuous renderings of clothing and jewelry. Also affecting the quality of the images, was the switch from wood to canvas , starting in Italy in the early part of the 16th century and spreading to Northern Europe over the next century. Canvas resists cracking better than wood, holds pigments better, and needs less preparation―but it

6000-583: The Baroque period, particularly in the Netherlands. Unlike in the rest of Europe, Dutch artists received no commissions from the Calvinist Church which had forbidden such images or from the aristocracy which was virtually non-existent. Instead, commissions came from civic and businesses associations. Dutch painter Frans Hals used fluid brush strokes of vivid color to enliven his group portraits, including those of

6125-636: The British school were English painters Thomas Gainsborough and Sir Joshua Reynolds , who also specialized in clothing their subjects in an eye-catching manner. Gainsborough's Blue Boy is one of the most famous and recognized portraits of all time, painted with very long brushes and thin oil color to achieve the shimmering effect of the blue costume. Gainsborough was also noted for his elaborate background settings for his subjects. The two British artists had opposite opinions on using assistants. Reynolds employing them regularly (sometimes doing only 20 percent of

6250-757: The City of Palermo in Puerto Rico, and Coronation of Saint Rosalia in Vienna. Van Dyck's series of St Rosalia paintings have been studied by Gauvin Alexander Bailey and Xavier F. Salomon , both of whom curated or co-curated exhibitions devoted to the theme of Italian art and the plague. In 2020, the New York Times published an article about the Metropolitan Museum of Art 's painting of Saint Rosalia by Van Dyck in

6375-507: The Elder . Van Balen was a successful painter of small cabinet paintings who had multiple pupils. It is not known how long he studied with van Balen, and estimates vary from two to four years. While it was common for apprentices to stay on in their master's workshop until they were formally registered as a master in the local guild, van Dyck is believed to have left his master's workshop in 1615 or 1616 to set up his independent workshop before he became

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6500-531: The King and Queen (later a special causeway was built to ease their access), who hardly sat for another painter while van Dyck lived. He was an immediate success in England, where he painted large numbers of portraits of the King and Queen, as well as their children. Many portraits were done in several versions, to be sent as diplomatic gifts or given to supporters of the increasingly embattled king. Altogether van Dyck has been estimated to have painted forty portraits of King Charles himself, as well as about thirty of

6625-522: The Queen, nine of the Earl of Strafford , and multiple ones of other courtiers. He painted many of the court, and also himself and his mistress, Margaret Lemon. In England he developed a version of his style which combined a relaxed elegance and ease with an understated authority in his subjects which was to dominate English portrait-painting to the end of the 18th century. His portraits of Charles on horseback updated

6750-591: The addition of increasingly thick layers one over another (known by painters as ‘fat over lean’). Also, oil colors dry more slowly, allowing the artist to make changes readily, such as altering facial details. Antonello da Messina was one of the first Italians to take advantage of oil. Trained in Belgium, he settled in Venice around 1475, and was a major influence on Giovanni Bellini and the Northern Italian school. During

6875-426: The aristocracy, most notably Charles I, and his family and associates. He was the dominant influence on English portrait-painting for over 150 years. He also painted mythological , allegorical and biblical subjects, including altarpieces, displayed outstanding facility as a draughtsman, and was an important innovator in watercolour and etching . His influence extends into the modern period. The Van Dyke beard

7000-399: The artist decide entirely. Oliver Cromwell famously demanded that his portrait show "all these roughnesses, pimples, warts, and everything as you see me, otherwise I will never pay a farthing for it." After putting the sitter at ease and encouraging a natural pose, the artist studies his subject, looking for the one facial expression, out of many possibilities, that satisfies his concept of

7125-558: The centuries. Northern European artists led the way in realistic portraits of secular subjects. The greater realism and detail of the Northern artists during the 15th century was due in part to the finer brush strokes and effects possible with oil colors , while the Italian and Spanish painters were still using tempera . Among the earliest painters to develop oil technique was Jan van Eyck . Oil colors can produce more texture and grades of thickness, and can be layered more effectively, with

7250-680: The civil guards to which he belonged. Rembrandt benefitted greatly from such commissions and from the general appreciation of art by bourgeois clients, who supported portraiture as well as still-life and landscapes painting. In addition, the first significant art and dealer markets flourished in Holland at that time. With plenty of demand, Rembrandt was able to experiment with unconventional composition and technique, such as chiaroscuro . He demonstrated these innovations, pioneered by Italian masters such as Caravaggio , most notably in his famous Night Watch (1642). The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp (1632)

7375-679: The classic idea of " Cavalier " style and dress, in fact a majority of his most important patrons in the nobility, such as Lord Wharton and the Earls of Bedford , Northumberland and Pembroke , took the Parliamentarian side in the English Civil War that broke out soon after his death. The King in Council by letters patent granted van Dyck denizenship in 1638. On 27 February 1640 he married Mary Ruthven, with whom he had one daughter. Mary

7500-453: The commission without being paid, suffering the humiliation of failure. Jacques-Louis David celebrated Portrait of Madame Récamier , wildly popular in exhibitions, was rejected by the sitter, as was John Singer Sargent 's notorious Portrait of Madame X . John Trumbull 's full-length portrait, General George Washington at Trenton , was rejected by the committee that commissioned it. The famously prickly Gilbert Stuart once replied to

7625-472: The commissioner. In religious paintings, portraits of donors began to be shown as present, or participate in the main sacred scenes shown, and in more private court images subjects even appeared as significant figures such as the Virgin Mary . If the poet says that he can inflame men with love… the painter has the power to do the same… in that he can place in front of the lover the true likeness of one who

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7750-438: The complexity of group portraits. Rococo artists, who were particularly interested in rich and intricate ornamentation, were masters of the refined portrait. Their attention to the details of dress and texture increased the efficacy of portraits as testaments to worldly wealth, as evidenced by François Boucher 's famous portraits of Madame de Pompadour attired in billowing silk gowns. The first major native portrait painters of

7875-723: The context of the COVID-19 virus. For the Genoese aristocracy, then in a final flush of prosperity, he developed a full-length portrait style, drawing on Veronese and Titian as well as Rubens' style from his own period in Genoa, where extremely tall but graceful figures look down on the viewer with great hauteur. In 1627, he went back to Antwerp where he remained for five years, painting more affable portraits which still made his Flemish patrons look as stylish as possible. A life-size group portrait of twenty-four City Councillors of Brussels he painted for

8000-573: The council-chamber was destroyed in 1695. He was evidently very charming to his patrons, and, like Rubens, well able to mix in aristocratic and court circles, which added to his ability to obtain commissions. By 1630, he was described as the court painter of the Habsburg Governor of Flanders, the Archduchess Isabella. In this period he also produced many religious works, including large altarpieces , and began his printmaking. King Charles I

8125-492: The courts of Europe, but avoided exclusive attachment to any of them. In 1620, at the instigation of George Villiers, Marquess of Buckingham , van Dyck went to England for the first time where he worked for King James I of England , receiving £100. It was in London in the collection of the Earl of Arundel that he first saw the work of Titian , whose use of colour and subtle modeling of form would prove transformational, offering

8250-875: The death of Henry Perronet Briggs , R.A., Illidge purchased the lease of the deceased artist's house in Bruton Street , Berkeley Square , where he commenced practice as a popular and fashionable portrait-painter. Illidge died unexpectedly of fever on 13 May 1851. Portrait painter Historically, portrait paintings have primarily memorialized the rich and powerful. Over time, however, it became more common for middle-class patrons to commission portraits of their families and colleagues. Today, portrait paintings are still commissioned by governments, corporations, groups, clubs, and individuals. In addition to painting, portraits can also be made in other media such as prints (including etching and lithography ), photography , video and digital media . It may seem obvious today that

8375-579: The declining state of Roman portrait art, "The painting of portraits which used to transmit through the ages the accurate likenesses of people, has entirely gone out…Indolence has destroyed the arts." These full-face portraits from Roman Egypt are fortunate exceptions. They present a somewhat realistic sense of proportion and individual detail (though the eyes are generally oversized and the artistic skill varies considerably from artist to artist). The Fayum portraits were painted on wood or ivory in wax and resin colors (encaustic) or with tempera , and inserted into

8500-535: The end of the century, the first oil portraits of contemporary individuals, painted on small wood panels, emerged in Burgundy and France, first as profiles, then in other views. The Wilton Diptych of ca. 1400 is one of two surviving panel portraits of Richard II of England , the earliest English king for whom we have contemporary examples. At the end of the Middle Ages in the 15th century, Early Netherlandish painting

8625-548: The first Italian artists to add allegorical symbols to their secular portraits. One of best-known portraits in the Western world is Leonardo da Vinci 's painting entitled Mona Lisa , named for Lisa del Giocondo , a member of the Gherardini family of Florence and Tuscany and the wife of wealthy Florentine silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo. The famous "Mona Lisa smile" is an excellent example of applying subtle asymmetry to

8750-399: The first rank, and artists like Holbein were in demand by English patrons. His painting of Sir Thomas More (1527), his first important patron in England, has nearly the realism of a photograph. Holbein made his great success painting the royal family, including Henry VIII . Dürer was an outstanding draftsman and one of the first major artists to make a sequence of self-portraits, including

8875-405: The grandeur of Titian's Equestrian Portrait of Charles V , but even more effective and original is his portrait of Charles dismounted in the Louvre : "Charles is given a totally natural look of instinctive sovereignty, in a deliberately informal setting where he strolls so negligently that he seems at first glance nature's gentleman rather than England's King". Although his portraits have created

9000-461: The guise of ancient philosophers. It was not the first group portrait of artists. Decades earlier, Paolo Uccello had painted a group portrait including Giotto , Donatello , Antonio Manetti , and Brunelleschi . As he rose in prominence, Raphael became a favorite portraitist of the popes. While many Renaissance artists eagerly accepted portrait commissions, a few artists refused them, most notably Raphael's rival Michelangelo , who instead undertook

9125-598: The hands of many of van Dyck's successors, like Lely or Kneller . The conventional view has always been more favourable: "When Van Dyck came hither he brought Face-Painting to us; ever since which time ... England has excel'd all the World in that great Branch of the Art" ( Jonathan Richardson : An Essay on the Theory of Painting , 1715, 41). Thomas Gainsborough is reported to have said on his deathbed "We are all going to heaven, and Van Dyck

9250-407: The head. The subject's head may turn from " full face " (front view) to profile view (side view); a " three-quarter view " ("two-thirds view") is somewhere in between, ranging from almost frontal to almost profile (the fraction is the sum of the profile [one-half of the face] plus the other side's "quarter-face"; alternatively, it is quantified 2 ⁄ 3 , also meaning this partial view

9375-600: The heads and main outlines of the figure, for an engraver to work up: "Portrait etching had scarcely had an existence before his time, and in his work it suddenly appears at the highest point ever reached in the art". He left most of the printmaking to specialists, who engraved after his drawings. His etched plates appear not to have been published until after his death, and early states are very rare. Most of his plates were printed after only his work had been done. Some exist in further states after engraving had been added, sometimes obscuring his etching. He continued to add to

9500-477: The heights of Velázquez's history paintings. Earlier ones remain very much within the style of Rubens, although some of his Sicilian works are individualistic. Van Dyck's portraits flattered more than Velázquez's. When Sophia of Hanover first met Queen Henrietta Maria (who was in exile in Holland) in 1641, she wrote: "Van Dyck's handsome portraits had given me so fine an idea of the beauty of all English ladies, that I

9625-406: The home or to travel easily with the client. Frequently, an artist takes into account where the final portrait will hang and the colors and style of the surrounding décor. Creating a portrait can take considerable time, usually requiring several sittings. Cézanne, on one extreme, insisted on over 100 sittings from his subject. Goya on the other hand, preferred one long day's sitting. The average

9750-480: The huge commissions of the Sistine Chapel . In Venice around 1500, Gentile Bellini and Giovanni Bellini dominated portrait painting. They received the highest commissions from the leading officials of the state. Bellini's portrait of Doge Loredan is considered to be one of the finest portraits of the Renaissance and ably demonstrates the artist's mastery of the newly arrived techniques of oil painting. Bellini

9875-538: The individualized busts of Hellenistic rulers on coins, show that Greek portraiture could achieve a good likeness, and subjects, at least of literary figures, were depicted with relatively little flattery – Socrates' portraits show why he had a reputation for being ugly. The successors of Alexander the Great began the practice of adding his head (as a deified figure) to their coins, and were soon using their own. Roman portraiture adopted traditions of portraiture from both

10000-462: The large ceiling paintings (sending them from Antwerp). A sketch for one wall remains, but by 1638 Charles was too short of money to proceed. This was a problem Velázquez did not have, but equally van Dyck's daily life was not encumbered by trivial court duties as faced by Velázquez. In his visits to Paris in his last years, van Dyck attempted to obtain the commission to paint the Grande Gallerie of

10125-536: The largest group of painted portraits are the funeral paintings that survived in the dry climate of Egypt's Fayum district (see illustration, below), dating from the 2nd to 4th century AD. These are almost the only paintings of the Roman period that have survived, aside from frescos , though it is known from the writings of Pliny the Elder that portrait painting was well established in Greek times, and practiced by both men and women artists. In his times, Pliny complained of

10250-463: The last major phase of portrait etching. Hyatt Mayor wrote: Etchers have studied Van Dyck ever since, for they can hope to approximate his brilliant directness, whereas nobody can hope to approach the complexity of Rembrandt's portraits. Van Dyck's success led him to maintain a large workshop in London, which became "virtually a production line for portraits". According to a visitor he usually only made

10375-543: The likeness, consists more in taking the general air, than in observing the exact similitude of every feature." Also prominent in England was William Hogarth , who dared to buck conventional methods by introducing touches of humor in his portraits. His "Self-portrait with Pug" is clearly more a humorous take on his pet than a self-indulgent painting. Anthony van Dyck Sir Anthony van Dyck ( / v æ n ˈ d aɪ k / ; Dutch : Antoon van Dyck [ˈɑntoːɱ vɑn ˈdɛik] ; 22 March 1599 – 9 December 1641)

10500-562: The many expressions of the human face, especially as one of the premier self-portraitists (of which he painted over 60 in his lifetime). This interest in the human face also fostered the creation of the first caricatures, credited to the Accademia degli Incamminati , run by painters of the Carracci family in the late 16th century in Bologna, Italy. Group portraits were produced in great numbers during

10625-414: The moral or religious character of the subject, or with symbols representing the sitter's occupation, interests, or social status. The background can be totally black and without content or a full scene which places the sitter in their social or recreational milieu. Self-portraits are usually produced with the help of a mirror, and the finished result is a mirror-image portrait, a reversal of what occurs in

10750-457: The most famous and enigmatic group portraits of all time. It memorializes the artist and the children of the Spanish royal family, and apparently the sitters are the royal couple who are seen only as reflections in a mirror. Starting out as primarily a genre painter, Velázquez quickly rose to prominence as the court painter of Philip IV , excelling in the art of portraiture, particularly in extending

10875-495: The mummy wrapping, to remain with the body through eternity. While free-standing portrait painting diminished in Rome, the art of the portrait flourished in Roman sculptures, where sitters demanded realism, even if unflattering. During the 4th century, the sculpted portrait dominated, with a retreat in favor of an idealized symbol of what that person looked like. (Compare the portraits of Roman Emperors Constantine I and Theodosius I ) In

11000-443: The newly developed technique of oil painting pioneered by van Eyck, which revolutionized art, and spread throughout Europe. Leading German portrait artists including Lucas Cranach , Albrecht Dürer , and Hans Holbein the Younger who all mastered oil painting technique. Cranach was one of the first artists to paint life-sized full-length commissions, a tradition popular from then on. At that time, England had no portrait painters of

11125-802: The painter's Wife), The Louvre in Paris (eighteen works), the Alte Pinakothek in Munich , the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. , the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston , and the Frick Collection have examples of his portrait style. Wilton House still holds the works he did for one of his main patrons, the Earl of Pembroke, including his largest work, a huge family group portrait with ten main figures. Spanish museums own

11250-556: The painting himself) while Gainsborough rarely did. Sometimes a client would extract a pledge from the artist, as did Sir Richard Newdegate from portraitist Peter Lely (van Dyck's successor in England), who promised that the portrait would be "from the Beginning to ye end drawne with my owne hands." Unlike the exactitude employed by the Flemish masters, Reynolds summed up his approach to portraiture by stating that, "the grace, and, we may add,

11375-620: The period of Akhenaten in the 14th century BC. Portrait painting of notables in China probably goes back to over 1000 BC, though none survive from that age. Existing Chinese portraits go back to about 1000 AD, but did not place much emphasis on likeness until some time after that. From literary evidence we know that ancient Greek painting included portraiture, often highly accurate if the praises of writers are to be believed, but no painted examples remain. Sculpted heads of rulers and famous personalities like Socrates survive in some quantity, and like

11500-469: The place one looks for the most complete, reliable, and pertinent information" about the subject. And the eyebrows can register, "almost single-handedly, wonder, pity, fright, pain, cynicism, concentration, wistfulness, displeasure, and expectation, in infinite variations and combinations." Portrait painting can depict the subject " full-length " (the whole body), " half-length " (from head to waist or hips ), " head and shoulders " ( bust ), or just

11625-414: The principal apprentices. There were even outside specialists who handled specific items such as drapery and clothing, such as Joseph van Aken Some artists in past times used lay-figures or dolls to help establish and execute the pose and the clothing. The use of symbolic elements placed around the sitter (including signs, household objects, animals, and plants) was often used to encode the painting with

11750-622: The relatively small and declining city of Antwerp probably explains why, despite his periodic returns to the city, van Dyck spent most of his career abroad. In 1620, in Rubens's contract for the major commission for the ceiling of the Carolus Borromeuskerk , the Jesuit church at Antwerp (lost to fire in 1718), van Dyck is specified as one of the "discipelen" who was to execute the paintings to Rubens' designs. Unlike van Dyck, Rubens worked for most of

11875-470: The series added to, so that it reached over two hundred portraits by the late 18th century. In 1851, the plates were bought by the Calcographie du Louvre . The Iconographie was highly influential as a commercial model for reproductive printmaking; now forgotten series of portrait prints were enormously popular until the advent of photography : "the importance of this series was enormous, and it provided

12000-472: The series until at least his departure for England, and presumably added Inigo Jones whilst in London. The series was a great success, but was his only venture into printmaking; portraiture probably paid better. At his death there were eighty plates by others, of which fifty-two were of artists, as well as his own eighteen. The plates were bought by a publisher; with the plates reworked periodically as they wore out they continued to be printed for centuries, and

12125-652: The shadows and the lights, the face is given greater relief. Leonardo was a student of Verrocchio . After becoming a member of the Guild of Painters, he began to accept independent commissions. Owing to his wide-ranging interests and in accordance with his scientific mind, his output of drawings and preliminary studies is immense though his finished artistic output is relatively small. His other memorable portraits included those of noblewomen Ginevra de’ Benci and Cecilia Gallerani . Raphael's surviving commission portraits are far more numerous than those of Leonardo, and they display

12250-401: The sitter to the point of diminishing the reality of physical appearance. One of the best portraitists of 16th-century Italy was Sofonisba Anguissola from Cremona, who infused her individual and group portraits with new levels of complexity. Court portraiture in France began when Flemish artist Jean Clouet painted his opulent likeness of Francis I of France around 1525. King Francis was

12375-400: The sitter's essence. The posture of the subject is also carefully considered to reveal the emotional and physical state of the sitter, as is the costume. To keep the sitter engaged and motivated, the skillful artist will often maintain a pleasant demeanor and conversation. Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun advised fellow artists to flatter women and compliment their appearance to gain their cooperation at

12500-429: The sitting. Central to the successful execution of the portrait is a mastery of human anatomy . Human faces are asymmetrical and skillful portrait artists reproduce this with subtle left-right differences. Artists need to be knowledgeable about the underlying bone and tissue structure to make a convincing portrait. For complex compositions, the artist may first do a complete pencil, ink, charcoal, or oil sketch which

12625-528: The skills of painters of the miniatures in illuminated manuscripts . Profile portraits, inspired by ancient medallions, were particularly popular in Italy between 1450 and 1500. Medals, with their two–sided images, also inspired a short-lived vogue for two-sided paintings early in the Renaissance. Classical sculpture, such as the Apollo Belvedere , also influenced the choice of poses used by Renaissance portraitists, poses that have continued in use through

12750-614: The studio of the leading northern painter of the day, Peter Paul Rubens , who became a major influence on his work. Van Dyck worked in London for some months in 1621, then returned to Flanders for a brief time, before travelling to Italy, where he stayed until 1627, mostly in Genoa . In the late 1620s he completed his greatly admired Iconography series of portrait etchings of mainly other artists and other famous contemporaries. He spent five years in Flanders after his return from Italy, and from 1630

12875-501: The styles worn by his models provided the names of the Van Dyke beard for the sharply pointed and trimmed goatees popular for men in his day, and the van Dyke collar , "a wide collar across the shoulders edged copiously with lace". During the reign of George III , a generic "Cavalier" fancy-dress costume called a Van Dyke was popular. Gainsborough's The Blue Boy is wearing such a Van Dyke outfit. In 1774 Derby porcelain advertised

13000-429: The subject (from the artist's point of view) or a flattering representation, not just a literal likeness. As Aristotle stated, "The aim of Art is to present not the outward appearance of things, but their inner significance; for this, not the external manner and detail, constitutes true reality." Artists may strive for photographic realism or an impressionistic similarity in depicting their subject, but this differs from

13125-502: The viewer – integrates with the setting in which she is placed to convey the artist's interpretation. Among the other possible variables, the subject can be clothed or nude; indoors or out; standing, seated, reclining; even horse-mounted. Portrait paintings can be of individuals, couples, parents and children, families, or collegial groups. They can be created in various media including oils , watercolor , pen and ink , pencil , charcoal , pastel , and mixed media . Artists may employ

13250-567: The works of Agnolo Bronzino and Jacopo da Pontormo . Bronzino made his fame portraying the Medici family. His daring portrait of Cosimo I de' Medici , shows the austere ruler in armor with a wary eye gazed to his extreme right, in sharp contrast to most royal paintings which show their sitters as benign sovereigns. El Greco , who trained in Venice for twelve years, went in a more extreme direction after his arrival in Spain, emphasizing his "inner vision" of

13375-422: The workshop, as well as by professional copyists and later painters. The number of paintings ascribed to him had by the 19th century become huge, as with Rembrandt, Titian and others. However, most of his assistants and copyists could not approach the refinement of his manner, so compared to many masters consensus among art historians on attributions to him is usually relatively easy to reach, and museum labelling

13500-402: The young artist was immense. Rubens referred to the nineteen-year-old van Dyck as "the best of my pupils". The origins and exact nature of their relationship are unclear. It has been speculated that van Dyck was a pupil of Rubens from about 1613, as even his early work shows little trace of van Balen's style, but there is no clear evidence for this. At the same time the dominance of Rubens in

13625-571: Was a Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England after success in the Spanish Netherlands and Italy . The seventh child of Frans van Dyck, a wealthy silk merchant in Antwerp , Anthony painted from an early age. He was successful as an independent painter in his late teens and became a master in the Antwerp Guild on 18 October 1617. By this time, he was working in

13750-528: Was a courtier, diplomat, art collector, and successful businessman. His studio was one of the most extensive of that time, employing specialists in still-life, landscape, animal and genre scenes, in addition to portraiture. Van Dyck trained there for two years. Charles I of England first employed Rubens, then imported van Dyck as his court painter, knighting him and bestowing on him courtly status. Van Dyck not only adapted Rubens’ production methods and business skills, but also his elegant manners and appearance. As

13875-522: Was also admitted as master painter in the Guild and had studied with Geert Ghendrick., He had later become a successful merchant in silk and small writing articles. He had bought the birth house of Anthony called Den Berendans (The Bear Dance) on the Grote Markt in Antwerp (Main Square) in 1579. On Anthony's mother's side there were also a few artists who were Guild members. After his birth his family moved to

14000-416: Was an especial target, who eventually in 1630 came on a diplomatic mission, which included painting, and he later sent Charles more paintings from Antwerp. Rubens was very well-treated during his nine-month visit, during which he was knighted . Charles's court portraitist, Daniel Mytens , was a somewhat pedestrian Dutchman. Charles was very short, less than 5 feet (1.5 m) tall, and presented challenges to

14125-654: Was buried on 11 December, in the choir of St Paul's Cathedral . His mortal remains and tomb (erected by the king) were destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666. In the 17th century, demand for portraits was stronger than for other types of work. Van Dyck tried to persuade Charles to commission large-scale series on the history of the Order of the Garter for the Banqueting House, Whitehall , for which Rubens had earlier completed

14250-479: Was court painter for the Archduchess Isabella , Habsburg Governor of Flanders. At the request of Charles I of England he returned in 1632 to London as the main court painter. With the exception of Holbein , van Dyck and his contemporary Diego Velázquez were the first painters of pre-eminent talent to work mainly as court portraitists, revolutionising the genre. Van Dyck is best known for his portraits of

14375-547: Was freed from French imprisonment. A letter dated 13 August 1641, from Lady Roxburghe in England to a correspondent in The Hague, reported that van Dyck was recuperating from a long illness. In November, van Dyck's condition worsened, and he returned to England from Paris, where he had gone to paint Cardinal Richelieu . He died in Blackfriars, London on 9 December 1641, the same day as the baptism of his daughter Justiniana. He

14500-520: Was initially much scarcer than wood. Early on, the Northern Europeans abandoned the profile, and started producing portraits of realistic volume and perspective. In the Netherlands, Jan van Eyck was a leading portraitist. The Arnolfini Marriage (1434, National Gallery , London) is a landmark of Western art, an early example of a full-length couple portrait, superbly painted in rich colors and exquisite detail. But equally important, it showcases

14625-443: Was key to the development of the individualized portrait. Masters included Jan van Eyck , Robert Campin and Rogier van der Weyden , among others. Rather small panel painting portraits, less than half life-size, were commissioned, not only of figures from the court, but what appear from their relatively plain dress to be wealthy townspeople. Miniatures in illuminated manuscripts also included individualized portraits, usually of

14750-635: Was provided with a house on the River Thames at Blackfriars , then just outside the City of London , thus avoiding the monopoly of the Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers . A suite of rooms in Eltham Palace , no longer used by the royal family, was also put at his disposal as a country retreat. These residences were managed by his partner Margaret Lemon . His Blackfriars studio was frequently visited by

14875-705: Was quarantined during the 1624 plague, one of the worst in Sicily's history. There he produced an important series of paintings of the city's plague saint Saint Rosalia . His depictions of a young woman with flowing blonde hair wearing a Franciscan cowl and reaching down toward the city of Palermo in its peril, became the standard iconography of the saint from that time onward and was extremely influential for Italian Baroque painters, from Luca Giordano to Pietro Novelli . Versions include those in Madrid , Houston , London , New York and Palermo , as well as Saint Rosalia Interceding for

15000-565: Was recorded, "He always went magnificently dress’d, had a numerous and gallant equipage, and kept so noble a table in his apartment, that few princes were not more visited, or better serv’d." In France, Hyacinthe Rigaud dominated in much the same way, as a remarkable chronicler of royalty, painting the portraits of five French kings. One of the innovations of Renaissance art was the improved rendering of facial expressions to accompany different emotions. In particular, Dutch painter Rembrandt explored

15125-410: Was surprised to find that the Queen, who looked so fine in painting, was a small woman raised up on her chair, with long skinny arms and teeth like defence works projecting from her mouth..." Some critics have blamed van Dyck for diverting a nascent, tougher English portrait tradition—of painters such as William Dobson , Robert Walker and Isaac Fuller —into what certainly became elegant blandness in

15250-469: Was taken under the wing of the court immediately, being knighted in July and at the same time receiving a pension of £200 a year, in the grant of which he was described as principalle Paynter in ordinary to their majesties . He was well paid for his paintings in addition to this, at least in theory, as King Charles did not actually pay over his pension for five years and reduced the price of many paintings. He

15375-608: Was that of a nobleman rather than an ordinary person, and he shone in rich garments. Since he was accustomed in the circle of Rubens to noblemen, and being naturally of elevated mind, and anxious to make himself distinguished, he therefore wore—as well as silks—a hat with feathers and brooches, gold chains across his chest, and was accompanied by servants." He was mostly based in Genoa , although he also travelled extensively to other cities, and stayed for some time in Palermo in Sicily , where he

15500-517: Was the daughter of Patrick Ruthven , who, although the title was forfeited, styled himself Lord Ruthven . She was a lady-in-waiting to the Queen in 1639–40; this may have been instigated by the King in an attempt to keep him in England. He had spent most of 1634 in Antwerp, returning the following year, and in 1640–41, as the Civil War loomed, spent several months in Flanders and France . In 1640 he accompanied prince John Casimir of Poland after he

15625-571: Was the most passionate collector of art among the Stuart kings and saw painting as a way of promoting his elevated view of the monarchy. In 1628, he bought the fabulous collection that the Duke of Mantua was forced to sell, and he had been trying since his accession in 1625 to bring leading foreign painters to England. In 1626, he was able to persuade Orazio Gentileschi to settle in England, later to be joined by his daughter Artemisia and some of his sons. Rubens

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