Portraiture 1 Renaissance

The Renaissance means the rebirth or rediscovery of high art which had been achieved in the classical period of ancient Greece and the Roman Empire, and then lost again in the period of the Middle Ages – the mediaeval period – when learning and sophistication were lost amongst the butchery and savage tribal wars of the various small European kingdoms and nomadic tribes like the vandals, the Goth and the invading barbarians like Genghis Khan.

With the Renaissance, portraiture returned so that paintings showed how an individual person appeared when seen in all their natural detail. Prior to the Renaissance, painting showed "generic" people rather than actual individuals.

Moroni is less well-known than Botticelli. But Moroni was a very accomplished portrait painter. In fact, portraiture was his main form of art. In the first of these two pictures, we can see a tailor. This is a portrait of a man worked in a trade. In general, a tradesman wouldn't be the subject of a large portrait painting like this. Yet, Maroni gives this man an identity through the weight of his stare. The tailor appears to be looking at us with scissors in hand ready to begin his work. He appears to be sizing us up. It is as though he is calculating in his mind's eye how much material he needs and what style he would cut it into to suit us.

The composition makes a central triangle. The hand on the left holds a pair of scissors. These scissors point inwards towards the material at the centre. They show us what will come next to the other hand. This hand holds the material. The corner of which, leads us up the sleeve to the head of the tailor. His eyes look at us and his head cocked to one side in thought. 

There is also a design of contrasting light and dark elements. The light hand holds dark scissors. The dark material lies on the light desk. The light hand and sleeve lead up to the dark inside of the jacket. The light ruff cuts across the shadow and lies below the dark beard. The light nose leads us towards the dark eyes.

In the second portrait, Moroni shows us the identity of a young rich woman. At first glance, she appears reserved, distant and haughty. On closer inspection, we can see that this young girl is fragile and vulnerable. Moroni uses the rendering of the expensive dress, jewellery, elaborate ruff and arranged hair to show her status. The clarity and details of all this makes her position visible to us.

She looks at us. In doing so, she looks out of the corner of her eyes away from the angle of her face. Her head is also lent back, away from us. She does not appear confident in herself, her identity or her position. 

This doubt makes the viewer wonder what could be confronting her. Is it a lack of self-belief – the kind of doubt that any young person or teenager might feel in a world of adults? Or is it something more specific? Is she, awaiting an arranged marriage which will take up from her unknown world to a new household and a new family?

Hans Holbein the Younger was born in Switzerland but travelled through Europe. We call his father "Hans Holbein the Elder" as he was also called Hans Holbein . 

Hans Holbein the Younger is most famous for portrait painting. He made these at the Royal Court and in a circle of Henry VIII in England. Holbein made very sophisticated drawings of people through delicate and economic means. He also produced finished and polished paintings like "The Ambassadors". This is his the most famous painting in England and is in the National Gallery in London.

He used pencil and soft black chalk to create skin tone and shading and then thin black ink lines for detail. He coloured these drawings with small patches of colour pastels, chalks or pencil.

In these paintings and drawings, Holbein shows the psychological presence of the sitter. That is to say, he conveys the personal identity of the sitter. And so, these drawings appear to be of real people caught from moments in their lives. They have recognisable emotions and psychologies. It is as though we are looking at people we know even though they wear strange old clothing. The man shown here looks up for a moment at someone or something. He could be reflecting on his own mortality. His eyes cast to the sky and considering the enormity of God. But just as much, he could be merely watching someone pass by in the room. The shadow of the stubble on his upper lip suggests the mundane and everyday aspects of his life. This detail makes it more likely that th picture is less important. The detail suggests that he is watching someone pass by him. The ink line of unshaven hair implies this. It doesn't present him as considering an almighty and all-powerful deity.

The young woman wears fashionable clothes. She looks out of the corner of her eye, at the viewer. She seems to be gazing inwards at the same time. She seems to be looking towards her own imagination rather than meeting new people. She seems lost in thought. The clothes, her pose and the drawing are elegant, cool and precise. And yet, her intelligence draws all our attention. We want to know what lies behind the delicate cool glassiness of her gaze.

Andrea del Sarto was a famous Renaissance artist, right at the heart of everything that was going on. He's not as well known today as the big three of Michelangelo, Leonardo and Raphael. At the time though, he was famous. Today, he is known as a Renaissance master. 

In both of these works, he shows his gift for conveying a realistic portrayal of a person’s identity. He invests a sketch drawing with the weight of a human gaze and the sense of the identity of the sitter. 

In the drawing here, a young girl is looking down. Whilst this is only a sketch of a model made for a painting, a practice piece, we feel the identity of the young girl. She is unknown to us as anything more than a model from 500 years ago. But here, in this drawing, she is before us again, sketched in with strength and clarity.

The painting could be a self-portrait. The young man appears to be at work and we catch him looking over his shoulder at us. This makes a casual moment more austere than formal through the black, white and cool blue of his sleeve. These coloured elements combine together into the picture‘s design. They make large, simple shapes which lend the painting a simple form of abstraction.

Once again, although we do not know the sitter, we feel his identity. He looks at us with liveliness and intelligence. We have interrupted him but we do not feel we have the better of him. In this painting, he appears more than a match for us, whoever we might be.