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| 500 years, women in art © Philip Scott Johnson  | Male self portraits © Philip Scott Johnson  |
ultcult.com was particularly moved by the two Philip Scott Johnson © mini-movies above, they morph through some of the most significant portraits down the years.
Portraiture is the second in the French hierarchy of genres. It is an old art form going stretching back 5,000 years to ancient Egypt and of course became a staple for coinage. A drawn, painted, etched or sculpted portrait became the ways mankind recorded the appearance of someone.
But portraits are not mere photographs, they encompass other issues, for instance, showing off the power, wealth and importance of the subject, perhaps they have also tended to flatter or exaggerate the beauty and virtue of the individual, or are composed to illustrate the taste, education and other qualities. They have other features, for example, most of Picasso’s pictures of women have been identified as portraits of his lovers. (Based upon tate.org.uk)
Portraiture 250-1500
Roman Empire, Early Renaissance, High Ren., Northern Ren.
Note: the image sources are accredited at the linked page
 Mummy portrait |  v. Eyck Turban |  Arnolfini Portrait |
 Charles VII |  Sforzas |  Ginevra de’ Benci |
 Giuliano deMedici |  Lady with Ermine |  Self Portrait |
Portraiture 1501-1550
High Renaissance, Northern Renaissance and Mannerism
Note: the image sources are accredited at the linked page
 Mona Lisa |  Castiglione |  Pope Leo X… |
 Thomas More |  Lady Squirrel… |  Luther and wife |
 Thomas Cromwell |  Henry VIII |  Bia de Medici |
Portraiture 1555-1699
Mannerism, Baroque and Dutch Golden Age
Note: the image sources are accredited at the linked page
 Maria de Medici |  Elizabeth I |  Julienne Gabrielle |
 Felix Paravicino |  Laughing Cavalier |  Charles I |
 Pope Innocent X |  Girl Pearl Earring |  Girl Red Hat |
Portraiture 1700 -1784
Baroque and Rococo
Note: the image sources are accredited at the linked page
 Louis XIV |  Madame Pléneuf |  François Boucher |
 Mme Pompadour |  David Garrick |  Geo. Clive Family |
 Blue Boy |  Marie Antoinette |  Waldegraves |
Portraiture 1785 -1849
Neoclassicism, American Colonial, Romanticism
and Victorian Art
Note: the image sources are accredited at the linked page
 Lavoisier and wife |  Geo. Washington |  Isaac Newton |
 Napoleon |  Paganini |  Beethoven |
 Envious Woman |  Kleptomaniac |  Charles Dickens |
Portraiture 1850 -1889
Impressionism, Japonism, Realism and Post-Impressionism
Note: the image sources are accredited at the linked page
 Olympia |  Emile Zola |  Whistler’s Mother |
 Berthe Morisot |  Gabriel Rossetti |  Madame X |
 Père Tanguy |  Self portrait |  Beardless |
Portraiture 1890 -1909
Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Picasso-Blue,
Realism and Cubism
Note: the image sources are accredited at the linked page
 Man pipe |  Javanese Annah |  Yvette Guilbert |
 Self, skeleton |  Italian Girl |  Woman in Blue |
 Lady Agnew |  Gertrude Stein |  Ambroise Voillard |
Portraiture 1910 -1929
Die Brücke, Cubism, Fauvism, Expressionism
and Bloomsbury Group,
Note: the image sources are accredited at the linked page
 Singer |  Pablo Picasso |  Sonia de Klamery |
 Juan Gris |  Vanessa Bell |  Lipchitzs |
 Edith Sitwell |  Miestschaninoff |  Roger Fry |
Portraiture 1930 –
Expressionism, Cubism, Surrealism, Romanticism,
Abstract-Expressionism, Photo Realism and Pop Art
Note: the image sources are accredited at the linked page
 Married Couple |  Weeping Woman |  Frida Kahlos |
 Smrst Maugham |  Screaming Pope |  Marilyn Monroe |
 Drowning Girl |  Chuck Close |  Clarks and Percy |
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