Lecture 2 - The Portrait
“A portrait! What could be more simple and more complex. More obvious and more profound” Charles Baudelair
Portraits are a form of evidential record whether it be recording a moment, a person, a scene or a false impression it has been used as a method of recording since is inception.
A portrait can tell you plenty about a person or persons within the scene such as Jan Van Eyck’s ‘Arnolfini Marriage’ 1434
From this portrait we can be told that the subjects of the portrait are of a rich family as during the specific era the oranges behind the male subject would have been incredibly valuable and this much like every other portrait is evidential, the portrait is evidence of the marriage.
In comparison, this piece ‘A Man in Armor’ by Piero di Cosimo was of an unknown man, all that is known is that the subject of the portrait was a man in armor.
Other portraits such as ‘Pope Innocent X’ by Velazquez was produced for the single purpose of recording the pope however the first portrait produced he stated was “Troppo Vero” - “Too truthful” and so it had to be changed into what it is now in order to not record the pope in any way other than how he wanted it.
Continuing onto photography, ‘Picasso’ by Arnold Newman 1954
Despite being an artist himself, Picasso posed in this photo portrait of him continuing from the idea of being recorded, this is how we wanted to be recorded within this portrait.
The portrait is simply a means of recording an identity whether it be a constructed moment, crafted identity, true identity or reminiscent of a past identity.
