- published: 13 Oct 2008
- views: 556259
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.
Most early representations that are clearly intended to show an individual are of rulers, and tend to follow idealizing artistic conventions, rather than the individual features of the subject's body, though when there is no other evidence as to the ruler's appearance the degree of idealization can be hard to assess. Nonetheless, many subjects, such as Akhenaten and some other Egyptian pharaohs, can be recognised by their distinctive features. The 28 surviving rather small statues of Gudea, ruler of Lagash in Sumeria between c. 2144 - 2124 BC, show a consistent appearance with some individuality.
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