A Discussion of Portraits
When one thinks of a portrait, perhaps one of the many paintings that flash by is that of Leonardo da Vinci: the Mona Lisa. But in fact, portraits do not have just one style. The subject does not have to be seated facing a certain way so that the artist can take advantage of the “curving” effect. It can be of a man, a woman, a god, or a child, religious or secular, idealized, or abstact.
In Portrait of a Man and a Woman at a Casement, Fra Filippo Lippi portrays a man and his wife somewhat facing each other. Although they are man and wife, they do not look intimate, and in fact, do not appear to be looking at each other. Because the woman is bigger in scale compared to the man, she seems closer to us. Moreover, everything recedes from her: the background seen through the window gives us an illusion of depth. The artist’s emphasis is on the wife: we see only part of the profile and hands of the husband. Why is more than half of the painting covered by only the woman? This painting was supposed to have been a commemoration of a wedding or the birth of a child. If this painting was about a birth of a child, it certainly makes sense that Fra Lippi gave more importance to the mother figure. He pays great attention to her dress and jewelry although we cannot see at all what her husband is wearing except for his “hat” (head-covering?). The female is idealized in that she has the characteristic Rennaissance smoothness and roundness. The man is looking inside, and the woman is looking outside through what we perceive to be a door. It is not drawn, but based on the light source, which is coming from the top left – we can tell because of the shadow that the husband’s face casts on the back wall – it seems like it is a door, and that the woman is looking outside at the world, thinking of the baby that is to see and share it with her. Overall, the painting is done in such a way that we feel like we’re looking at the two people through a frame or a window as well.
Rembrandt’s...