PORTRAIT PAINTING. A portrait is a work of art repre senting an individual. It has been called a materialization of an individual soul. The pleasure we derive from the contemplation of a portrait is due to its value as a likeness as well as to its aesthetic qualities. A cast taken from life is not a portrait, nor is a photograph, nor any painting, drawing or sculpture which does not possess the harmony of line and colour which alone can give it aesthetic value.
A composer who wishes to give the impression of the song of birds does not imitate the notes of real birds, but invents notes which harmonize with his music. When heard alone they would have no meaning, but as part of the composition they convey to us the sensation of hearing birds sing. So the colours and lines of a picture gain significance only through their relation to each other. As in a poem not one word can be changed, so in a portrait not a touch can be added without unbalancing the whole. But whatsoever the aesthetic quality of a picture may be, it cannot be called a portrait unless it awakens in us the feeling that we are facing an individual with his physical and mental characteristics.
When the ancient Egyptians buried their dead they enclosed in the tombs statues representing the dead so that the Ka might find its earthly habitat in them. For this reason the statues of the ancient empire, and again of the Salte epoch were of amazing realism : true portraits because they were at the same time superb examples of decorative sculpture. But as far as we know, Egyptian painting remained a mere colouring of figures which had to con form to rigid formulae dictated by the priests.
The encaustic portraits found in Egyptian tombs of the Roman period are of small artistic value. As yet no fine examples of Greek or Roman painting have been unearthed. But from contemporary writers we learn so much about them that we have reason to be lieve that they were equal in quality to the sculpture. Inferior copies, such as the copy in mosaic of a painting representing Alexander the Great in the Battle of Issos, give us some idea of their style and colouring. The paintings of Pompeii and Her
culaneum show that the Roman artists had an impressionistic method of indicating form and dividing colour.
As early as 1326 B.C. portraiture is mentioned by the Chinese. In accordance with the doctrine of filial piety, Confucius, in the 6th and 5th centuries B.C., taught that portraits of great men should furnish to the coming generation stimulating and ennobling examples. In temples some portraits of the best period have been preserved. Limited to line, the painters succeeded in producing the sensation of perfect modelling with mere contour. The primary condition of such a picture is to decorate a flat wall ; the spaces covered are flat spaces. The artist invents a harmony of colour which intensifies and gives added charm to the harmony of line.
In Europe, for more than ten centuries, the Catholic Church placed restrictions on artists similar to those of the Egyptian priests. In A.D. 325 the Council of Nicea proclaimed that the "composition of pictures should not be the invention of the artist but the rules and traditions of the church." In the 7th century St. Gregory the pope wrote, "Let the churches be filled with paint ings that they who do not know their letters may be able to read on the walls what they cannot read in the manuscripts." It goes without saying that portraiture could not flourish under these conditions.
In Italy in the 13th century, Giotto was the first to introduce into his frescos of religious subjects groups of spectators for which his friends posed. Thus we have in a group of citizens on the fresco "Paradise" in the chapel of Bargello, in Florence, a portrait of Dante. Filippino Lippi (146o-15o5) paints himself with Botticelli and Pollaiolo in the Brancacci chapel. Ghirlandajo (1449-1494) places himself and his family and the donors on the fresco in the Capella Tornabuoni.