Portraits: A History - Hardcover

Beyer, Andreas

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0810945398 ISBN 13: 9780810945395

Publisher: Harry N. Abrams, 2003

Synopsis

From its mythic beginnings - the tracing of a man's shadow to maintain his memory during a long absence - to present-day "portrayals" that are almost completely abstract, the genre of portraiture has had the unique goal of capturing, communicating, and documenting humankind's self-image through the ages. This sumptuous, oversized art treasury, with nearly 300 full-page reproductions of major works from museums all over the world, presents the history of Western portraiture, from its evolution in antiquity to its flowering in the Renaissance and Baroque eras to its transformation in modern times. The masters of the portrait - including Jan van Eyck, Leonardo, Raphael, Frans Hals, Hans Holbein, and Rembrandt - are all well represented, as are more recent practitioners of the genre such as Picasso, Chuck Close, and Gerhard Richter. Numerous stunning, close-up details provide an intimate view of the subjects depicted and invaluable information about the artists' techniques.
Art historian Andreas Beyer's well-researched and far-ranging text offers a fascinating overview of portraiture in all its manifestations: individual and group portraits; official and casual settings; sitters ranging from the famous to the anonymous; renderings of lovers, friends, and family; artists' powerful depictions of themselves; idealized visions along with warts-and-all realism. Through Beyer's vivid description of the portrait's artists, sitters, and contexts - artistic and political - we see how portraiture rose in status from the lowest rank in the hierarchy of genres to a legitimate and respected practice. Sometimes, as in the case of Diego Velazquez's Las Meninas, portraits would encompass the greatest masterpieces in a given artist's oeuvre. Thomas Gainsborough's The Blue Boy, Francois Boucher's Madame de Pompadour, John Singer Sargent's Madame X, Pablo Picasso's Gertrude Stein, and scores of other works by the most accomplished artists in portraiture illustrate, as the introduction states, "the seduction of everything human in the image." This volume is a celebration of a key aspect of our artistic heritage.

About this title

About the Author

Andreas Beyer, one of the leading German art historians of his generation, is chair of the art history department at the Rheinisch Westfälische Technische Hochschule in Aachen, Germany. He has had fellowships at the Clark Institute in Williamstown, MA; the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC; and the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles.

Reviews

From lavish portraits of kings and queens filled with symbols of wealth and prosperity, to erotically charged portraits of mistresses and lost loves, to searching and poignant artist self-portraits, German art historian Beyer traces a "panoramic history" of the art of portraiture, accompanied by fine reproductions and numerous close-up details. Since, as the author says, "there is in fact no real theory of the portrait," he attempts to remedy that lapse: innovations in portraiture are linked to innovations in painting generally, and Beyer stresses the fact that the effort to represent a human being in art very much addresses the centuries-old question of the role of art in life. Did the portrait artist capture the "essence" of the person portrayed, or did they also paint in idealized human features in order to link the portrait to classical, or divine subjects? Does the essence of a person involve precise reproduction of facial features, like a photocopy, or, as in Imi Knoebel's abstract "portrait" of four women, can that essence be represented by colored rectangles? At times, these questions sparked such agitation that, as in the case of Goya's portrait of the duchess of Alba, a suspected subject of a portrait could be exhumed years after his or her death to be compared to the painting. Beyer includes most of the famous portraits, including the Mona Lisa, among the 290, somewhat dark color reproductions here (including many 11" 13" full-bleeds); some lesser-known portraits could have happily been substituted for multiple close-ups of the masterpieces. When Beyer discusses the importance of Rembrandt's lifelong series of self-portraits, for instance, he only includes one early and one late self-portrait. And while the text is chronological, it does not provide clear overviews of regional trends, themes, or schools. Nevertheless, Beyer's thoughtful and original scholarship does much to establish portraiture as a worthy and compelling subject.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0810945398
• ISBN 13: 9780810945395
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 416