Portrait painting

Andrew Wyeth's Christina's World (1948) is a famous example, where the pose of the disabled woman – with her back turned to the viewer – integrates with the setting in which she is placed to convey the artist's interpretation.

The Fayum portraits were painted on wood or ivory in wax and resin colors (encaustic) or with tempera, and inserted into the mummy wrapping, to remain with the body through eternity.

(Compare the portraits of Roman Emperors Constantine I and Theodosius I) In the Late Antique period the interest in an individual likeness declined considerably, and most portraits in late Roman coins and consular diptychs are hardly individualized at all, although at the same time Early Christian art was evolving fairly standardized images for the depiction of Jesus and the other major figures in Christian art, such as John the Baptist, and Saint Peter.

Between 1350 and 1400, secular figures began to reappear in frescos and panel paintings, such as in Master Theodoric's Charles IV receiving fealty,[24] and portraits once again became clear likenesses.

Painting in general reached a new level of balance, harmony, and insight, and the greatest artists (Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael) were considered "geniuses", rising far above the tradesman status to valued servants of the court and the church.

The greater realism and detail of the Northern artists during the 15th century was due in part to the finer brush strokes and effects possible with oil colors, while the Italian and Spanish painters were still using tempera.

The Arnolfini Marriage (1434, National Gallery, London) is a landmark of Western art, an early example of a full-length couple portrait, superbly painted in rich colors and exquisite detail.

Filippo Lippi paved the way in developing sharper contours and sinuous lines[36] and his pupil Raphael extended realism in Italy to a much higher level in the following decades with his monumental wall paintings.

Sandro Botticelli, Piero della Francesca, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Lorenzo di Credi, and Leonardo da Vinci and other artists expanded their technique accordingly, adding portraiture to traditional religious and classical subjects.

[50] El Greco, who trained in Venice for twelve years, went in a more extreme direction after his arrival in Spain, emphasizing his "inner vision" of the sitter to the point of diminishing the reality of physical appearance.

Flemish painters Sir Anthony van Dyck and Peter Paul Rubens excelled at this type of portraiture, while Jan Vermeer produced portraits mostly of the middle class, at work and play indoors.

[58] This interest in the human face also fostered the creation of the first caricatures, credited to the Accademia degli Incamminati, run by painters of the Carracci family in the late 16th century in Bologna, Italy.

[66] Sometimes a client would extract a pledge from the artist, as did Sir Richard Newdegate from portraitist Peter Lely (van Dyck's successor in England), who promised that the portrait would be "from the Beginning to ye end drawne with my owne hands.

"[67] Unlike the exactitude employed by the Flemish masters, Reynolds summed up his approach to portraiture by stating that, "the grace, and, we may add, the likeness, consists more in taking the general air, than in observing the exact similitude of every feature.

In the United States, John Singleton Copley, schooled in the refined British manner, became the leading painter of full-size and miniature portraits, with his hyper-realistic pictures of Samuel Adams and Paul Revere especially well-regarded.

Copley is also notable for his efforts to merge portraiture with the academically more revered art of history painting, which he attempted with his group portraits of famous military men.

(see Gallery below) Romantic artists who worked during the first half of the 19th century painted portraits of inspiring leaders, beautiful women, and agitated subjects, using lively brush strokes and dramatic, sometimes moody, lighting.

Spanish painter Francisco de Goya painted some of the most searching and provocative images of the period, including La maja desnuda (c. 1797–1800), as well as famous court portraits of Charles IV.

Partly due to their meager incomes, many of the Impressionists relied on family and friends to pose for them, and they painted intimate groups and single figures in either outdoors or in light-filled interiors.

American society painter Cecilia Beaux, called the "female Sargent", was born of a French father, studied abroad and gained success back home, sticking with traditional methods.

Prolific Spanish artist Pablo Picasso painted many portraits, including several cubist renderings of his mistresses, in which the likeness of the subject is grossly distorted to achieve an emotional statement well beyond the bounds of normal caricature.

In May 2008, Freud's 1995 portrait Benefits Supervisor Sleeping was sold by auction by Christie's in New York City for $33.6 million, setting a world record for sale value of a painting by a living artist.

Unlike their Persian predecessors, Mughal patrons placed great emphasis on detailed naturalistic likenesses of all the unfamiliar natural forms of their new empire, such as animals, birds and plants.

Despite the vivid depiction of physical features and facial expression, due to the lack of identity and the close bound to narrative context, many scholars categorize these Han dynasty wall paintings as "character figures in action" instead of actual likenesses of specific individuals.

In the relief painting, the figure of Liu Ling sits in a casual posture with a curving knee and holds an erbei, a vessel for alcohol, while dipping the other hand into the cup to have a taste of the drink.

Gu Kaizhi, one of the most famous artists of the Eastern Jin dynasty, instructed how to reflect the sitter's characteristics through accurate portray of the physical features in his book On Painting.

The emperors portrayed in informal costumes were regarded as the bad examples of a ruler such as being weak or violent, while the ones in formal dresses were thought to accomplish either civil or military achievements.

The lack of inscription on the portrait painting leaves his intention unclear, but some scholars believe the exotic costume reflects his interest in foreign culture and desire to rule the world.

The major subject was idealized exemplary women (lie nü) with virtues prompted by Confucianism such as chastity, three-fold obedience (san cong) to father, husband, son.

Although depicted as living in luxurious fashion and comfortable housing, women in the painting were usually portrayed as lonely and melancholic because they feel deserted or trapped in the domestic chores while their husbands stayed outside and pursued their careers.