PORTRAIT (Portrait, French ; Ritratto, Italian ; Bildniss, German; Imago, Latin; Greek). A portrait, strictly speaking, signifies the likeness of anything whatever, whether animate or inanimate, either drawn or coloured upon a flat surface : in a more restricted sense it signifies a drawing or a painting representing the likeness of any particular individual ; but it is also frequently applied to the pictures of animals.
Portrait, says Lord Orford, is the only true historical painting. Its uses are manifest ; it administers to the affections, it preserves to the world the features of those who, for their services, have merited the gratitude of mankind, and of those who have been in anyway remark able for their own actions or through their position in society ; and in a simply historical point of view, it illustrates the costume and habits of past ages. In all or nearly all these respects photographic por traiture is of almost inestimable value ; but our immediate subject is portrait painting, and to that we must confine our attention. We may, however, remark that it is only by a studious regard to the principles which lead to excellence in portrait painting, that satisfactory results can be obtained in photographic portraiture.
Portraiture seems to be almost as ancient as the art of painting itself; indeed, according to the romantic legend told by Pliny (` Hist. Nat.' xxxv. 12, 43), it was in Greece the origin of the imitative arts ; an enamoured Corinthian maid traced the profile of her lover around his shadow cast by a lamp upon the wall.
The most ancient portraits extant, if they can be termed such, are those which have been found in the cases of mummies : there is a singularly fine specimen of these preserved in the Egyptian museum of the Louvre in I'aris; and there is also one in the British Museum.
It was a custom among the ancients, in very early times, for warriors to have their portraits painted upon their shields, called by the Romans imagines clipeorum, or imagines cupcake, and these shield.* were frequently dedicated in the temples in honour of their owners when deceased, or placed by victors as trophies (clipei votivi). The portraits were most probably painted in wax, but that they were well executed is very doubtful. ( Pliny, xxxv. 3.) Among the Romans, in the time of the republic, the possession of the portraits of their ancestors (imagines majors/a) was a proof of nobility, for by the jus imaginal,' none were permitted to make portraits of themselves except those who had themselves or whose ancestors had borne some curule magistracy; and Roman families:were accustomed to boast of their fantosce imagines as a proof of their ancient nobility. (Cic., In Pisonem; 1.) These portraits or images,
which were of wax, were preserved with much care by their posterity, and were only brought out upon great occasions or carried before them in funeral processions. ( Pliny, xxxv. 2.) They were probably painted busts, for the art of casting with wax in plaster moulds taken from the life was, according to Pliny (xxxv. 12, 44), invented as early as the time of Alexander, by Lysistratus the brother of Lysippus. It seems that the Romans were also sometimes in the habit of prefixing the portraits of authors to their works. Martial mentions one of Virgil (xiv. 186).
The most ancient portrait-painter of extraordinary merit on record was apparently Dionysius of Colophon : he is praised by Aristotle (` Poet.: 2) for the fidelity of his paintings ; and from what Plutarch says (` Timol.; 36) of the high finish of his works, we may perhaps term him the Holbein of antiquity : he flourished, as nearly as can be ascertained, shortly after the time of Polygnotus and Phidias, about 430 D.C.
The most famous portrait-painter among the ancients was Apelles he enjoyed the exclusive privilege of painting the portraits of Alexander : one of his most celebrated pictures was a portrait of that monarch as Jupiter, called the " Alexander Ceraunophoros," for which, according to the incredible account of Pliny (xxxv. 10, 36), he received 20 talents of gold (upwards of 50,0001. sterling) ; so large a sum, that it was measured to the painter, not counted ("mensura, non numero "). Most of the pictures of Apellee were portraits in an extended sense, yet it is doubtful whether before the time of the Roman emperors there was a distinct class of painters who confined themselves to portraits (" imaginum pictures:" Pliny, xxxv. II, 40). Even in the great days of Italian art there was not a distinct class of portrait painters as in the present times ; and it is an incontestable fact, that although upon the whole the number of good portrait painters has very much increased, still portrait-painting itself has not improved since such has become the practice.