Three Aspects of Portrait Painting
Beyond Death
Arising from funeral sculptures portraits still have the function to sustain the memory of a person alive beyond death.
An Image of Unmistakable Individuality
The portrait becomes important to the private space with the beginning of Renaissance. The concentration is focused on similarity and the character of the model. These portraits do not capture a moment but show an aesthetic arrangement which reveals a lot about the artist as well as about the portrayed person.
Contemporary Portrait Painting
Nowadays - a time of unlimited reproduction - it is hard to distinguish between a technically well painted and faked portrait. The easy way of manipulating images emphasises the higher value of oil paintings or bronze.
More than ever before the process of painting a portrait and the occurrences between artist and the portrayed person create the central artistic moment.
Of course craftsmanship and the development of the own style still belong to the measure of value for timeless art.