Renaissance Portraits

It seems that ever since ancient times, the basis for the great success of portraiture as a genre has been that entirely human aspiration to leave a tangible sign of one's life on earth, the desire to immortalise an image of oneself in an attempt to defeat the inevitable passage of time.

This fascinating and complex subject acquired status as an art form during the 15th century as the concept of Humanism became more diffuse and greater importance was given to the dignity of a person and his capacity to be in control of his own destiny.

The selection of portraits by great European artists contained in this book begins with those of an official nature in which the subject is shown in profile — a deliberate reminder of the classic world — and continues with those offering a realistic image of the subject and an extremely detailed landscape. It ends with portraits from the late Renaissance when it was a psychological characterisation of the subject that prevailed.