The art of the portrait: masterpieces of european portrait-painting, 1420-1670

Contents The great age of the portrait -- Origins of the portrait -- Early portrait of a ruler -- Portraits of Renaissance women -- The psychological portrait -- Portraits and caricatures -- Portraits of Renaissance humanists -- Mythologising portraits -- Portraits of popes and cardinals -- Portraits of artists and collectors -- Artists' self-portraits -- Portrait of a friend -- "Teste composte" -- Portraits of 16th and 17th-century rulers -- Marriage and family portraits -- Portraits of children -- Dutch Civic Guard portraits -- Anatomy lessons -- Portraits of fools and dwarfs -- Notes -- Biographies. Summary This work sets out to analyze some of the major works of early modern portraiture and takes a close look at 50 major works, including paintings by Jan Van Eyck, Holbein the Younger, Raphael, Mantegna and Botticelli. The portraits presented here are selected exclusively from works executed between the late Middle Ages and the 17th century - for it was then that portraiture came into its own. The portraits themselves have been chosen on the basis of their subjects' rank and profession. The value of this method of selection is its proximity to both the painters' intentions and their patrons' requirements