- published: 25 Apr 2016
- views: 39000
A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this reason, in photography a portrait is generally not a snapshot, but a composed image of a person in a still position. A portrait often shows a person looking directly at the painter or photographer, in order to most successfully engage the subject with the viewer.
Some of the earliest surviving painted portraits of people who were not kings or emperors, are the funeral portraits that survived in the dry climate of Egypt's Fayum district. These are almost the only paintings from the classical world that have survived, apart from frescos, though many sculptures survive, and portraits on coins.
The art of the portrait flourished in Ancient Greek and especially Roman sculpture, where sitters demanded individualized and realistic portraits, even unflattering ones. During the 4th century, the portrait began to retreat in favor of an idealized symbol of what that person looked like. (Compare the portraits of Roman Emperors Constantine I and Theodosius I at their entries.) In the Europe of the Early Middle Ages representations of individuals are mostly generalized. True portraits of the outward appearance of individuals re-emerged in the late Middle Ages, in tomb monuments, donor portraits, miniatures in illuminated manuscripts and then panel paintings.
She's draped across the bathtub
Or lying on the floor
So cold her pale white skin
I'll touch her to be sure, blind redemption
The words were draped in broken embers
Regret is all that I have
I can't seem to sleep without her face
The lines under my eyes
Foretell my sleepless nights
Why am I holding on? Denial of frail wrists
The words were draped in broken embers
Regret is all that I have
I need you to paint this portrait in my mind
To take away my pain
Take away my pain
Where she is pure and silent
So crawl back into the womb
Pre-mortal emancipation
The scars ripped across her neck
Mimic the holes of trephination, throw her back
The words were draped in broken embers
Regret is all that I have
I need you to paint this portrait in my mind
To take away my pain