Flattering portraits...
Al B. Traus
Renaissance artists hired to paint
portraits of aristocrats probably
at times risked beheading - or worse -
if they did NOT flatter their subjects. So
I'm not sure why the following web article
presents recent findings as revelatory:
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20050509/medicipix.html
Reminds me of David Hockney's recent "enlightenment"
concerning artist's historic use of drawing aids.
Thur
"Al B. Traus" <bird...@dontemailme.com> wrote in message
news:4280...@nntp.zianet.com...
what the artist saw - or observed through a lens is difficult
to prove.
Parmigianino "Madonna with the Long Neck" for example,
alters the body ratios to the extreme.
Did he do it because it was a fashion to do so, or is it an
error produced by faulty copying through a lens?
Maybe - like later painters, he was preparing the portrait
to be hung well above the viewers eyes so that foreshortening
would be counteracted? (Although I am not sure if this works)
Renaissance painting did increase the range of human expression
and human likeness, but they would all have looked boringly the
same if their sole aim were to be a human camera.
Whether a nose was elongated to order by the buyer, or because
the artist had an ideal of the perfect beauty, is impossible to say.
--
Thur
willi...@netscape.net
Younger, painted of Anne Of Cleves, before she met King Henry VIII. It
was the first time, Henry had seen an image of her, and was apparently
pleased. Later on, when he did meet her in person, he could not stand
the very sight of her.
Al B. Traus
willi...@netscape.net says...
>Later on, when he did meet her in person, he could not stand
>the very sight of her.
You may have seen the news item the past
day or so about the new forensic portrait of
King Tut, and how accurately it proves his
tomb/mummy portraits to have been. I find
that interesting in light of the fact that
the Egyptians otherwise "stylized" their
figures in both paintings and sculptures.
Andrew D
Traus) wrote:
> Renaissance artists hired to paint
> portraits of aristocrats probably
> at times risked beheading - or worse -
> if they did NOT flatter their subjects.
[snip]
I once read that Singer-Sargent was commissioned to do a portrait of
family in which the daughter had an unusually large nose - and that the
father insisted Sargent paint it that way. The story goes that Sargent
gave the girl an improved nose, and plonked a real honker on the father!
--
Andy D.
Andrew D
<no-per...@z.com> wrote:
> "Al B. Traus" <bird...@dontemailme.com> wrote in message
> news:4280...@nntp.zianet.com...
> >
> > Renaissance artists hired to paint
> > portraits of aristocrats probably
> > at times risked beheading - or worse -
> > if they did NOT flatter their subjects. So
> > I'm not sure why the following web article
> > presents recent findings as revelatory:
> >
> > http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20050509/medicipix.html
> >
> > Reminds me of David Hockney's recent "enlightenment"
> > concerning artist's historic use of drawing aids.
> >
> The idea that Renaissance portraits are exact copies of
> what the artist saw - or observed through a lens is difficult
> to prove.
> Parmigianino "Madonna with the Long Neck" for example,
> alters the body ratios to the extreme.
> Did he do it because it was a fashion to do so, or is it an
> error produced by faulty copying through a lens?
> Maybe - like later painters, he was preparing the portrait
> to be hung well above the viewers eyes so that foreshortening
> would be counteracted? (Although I am not sure if this works)
It should only work if the perspective (and presumably the frame) are also
distorted to the point where the viewer is not aware of the true angle. We
can see this phenomena at many sporting events where distorted signs are
painted on the turf such that from one camera angle, they seem to stand
upright and perpendicular to that camera.
--
Andy D.
chris
And the obverse side of that coin, there's the Velasquez portraits of
the Spanish royalty. Unless, of course they were in fact flattering,
which would be scary indeed... (BTW, kudos to the producers of the
recent "Merchant of Venice" for their Velasquezian (?) portrayal of the
Spanish prince & his family....)
willi...@netscape.net
"Hapsburg Lip", a not too pleasing feature, of the members of th inbred
Hapsburg Dynasty. I would definately, suspect flattery here.
Thur
<willi...@netscape.net> wrote in message
news:1115782192.3...@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
to the subject matter is Domenico Ghirlandaio
http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/ghirlandaio_domenico.html
Some texts explain that he was popular because he copied all
aspects, whether flattering or otherwise.
--
Thur