Lets face it, people are complicated, and donors are no different. This dedication, however, does not automatically convert the scene into one of personal acts of piety for which the emperors are seeking forgiveness of personal sins. Donor portrait explained. 1.14),Footnote 24 as well as the full-size monk Theophanes in the Gospel of Theophanes in Melbourne (National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Felton Bequest, 1960 (7105), fol. Raphaels widely imitated portrait of Baldassare Castiglione (ca. A. Godley, Loeb Clasical Library 117 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981), 1:134. Additionally, this direction of address travels along the power gradient inversely from the donor portrait, moving from greater power to lesser. The Actual Reasons Historical Royals Commissioned Portraits - Ranker Portrait painting is almost as old as painting itself and can be traced back to archaeological finds from the Fertile Crescent. Mannerist artists adjusted these conventions to produce works like Bronzinos portrait of a young man (29.100.16) painted in the 1530s: the figure again appears half-length, but the expression is aloof rather than serene, curious pieces of furniture replace the barrier along the lower border, and the handsthe right fingering the pages of a book and the left fixed on the hipsuggest momentary action and bravado rather than quiet dignity. This freshly unearthed image drastically alters the meaning of one of the artists most celebrated works. In Byzantium this is the general rule for imperial images, for the reasons discussed above. In a coronation, the power flow and the narrative, so to speak, compound each other, each amplifying the other. 30 H. Belting, Das illuminierte Buch in der sptbyzantinischen Gesellschaft (Heidelberg: C. Winter, 1970), 61 ff., and Spatharakis, Portrait, 8487. [20] Normally the main figures ignore the presence of the interlopers in narrative scenes, although bystanding saints may put a supportive hand on the shoulder in a side-panel. This uneven chronological distribution of the images sets natural limits to the time-frame of this study, since most of the images and, indeed, related discourses and texts used in our investigations fall between the late eleventh and fifteenth centuries. : Byzantine Studies Association of North America, 2008). 1.11).Footnote 18. Paintings either depicted deceased saints or characters from the Bible, which were drawn from description and imagination rather than references. 666Synodal 387, fol. By contrast, Theodore makes an immense effort to establish a link with Christ, to communicate with him. ), Byzantine Court Culture from 829 to 1204 (Washington: Dumbarton Oaks, 1997): see especially Maguires chapter The Heavenly Court, 24758. Here we return to the issue of the dual agenda of these images, as making claims both religious and social, although not necessarily in equal degrees. Central Europe (including Germany), 14001600 A.D. Central Europe (including Germany), 16001800 A.D. Eastern Europe and Scandinavia, 14001600 A.D. Eastern Europe and Scandinavia, 16001800 A.D. Florence and Central Italy, 14001600 A.D. Florence and Central Italy, 16001800 A.D. Great Britain and Ireland, 14001600 A.D. Great Britain and Ireland, 16001800 A.D. Venice and Northern Italy, 14001600 A.D. Venice and Northern Italy, 16001800 A.D. 82nd & Fifth: Tipping Point by Stijn Alsteens, The Artist Project: Il Lee on Rembrandt van Rijns portraits, The Artist Project: Julie Mehretu on Velzquezs, The Artist Project: Liliana Porter on Jacomettos, The Artist Project: Nina Katchadourian on Early Netherlandish portraiture, The Artist Project: Paul Tazewell on Anthony van Dycks portraits. In the Early Middle Ages, a group of mosaic portraits in Rome of Popes who had commissioned the building or rebuilding of the churches containing them show standing figures holding models of the building, usually among a group of saints. One might be tempted to say that it is the difference in scale between human and supernatural figures that is responsible; but this frequently applies to our Byzantine images as well, as we have seen. This process may be intensified if the praying beholder is the donor himself. Donor recognition walls can display a lot of names, so they are most often installed after a large capital campaign. Interests and motivations:Understanding someones why isnt easy, but its a whole lot easier if youve made a note of their main hobbies, family situation, and motivation for giving. Tempting though it may be to associate the differing iconographies seen here with the different terms applied by those languages, we should bear in mind that these visual distinctions are not what those individual words usually describe. The imperial ktetor portrait is a muted or mitigated form of the full imperial image. 1.10),Footnote 17 and a young boy and a man approaching St. Demetrios in the Church of Hagios Demetrios in Thessalonika (before 620, Fig. Furthermore, it is a flow that moves up the power gradient, from lesser to greater. It consists of several chapters of the Panoplia, an anti-heretical work in all likelihood composed at the behest of Alexios himself from the theologian Euthymios Zygabenos.Footnote 13 Alexios is thus reading to Christ from this work that he has commissioned, a work that not only attacks heresy, but also is based on nothing but the most orthodox of sources. [32], See particularly Roberts, 2224 for a review of the historiography as to the motivations of donors. Although there is not much doubt which scenes represent the core of the type the examples already noted in the Introduction are perfect instances the term as it is conventionally used covers a wide range of images. As you have access to this content, full HTML content is provided on this page. Although all images bespeak both themes, they do not do so with equal emphasis. Instead, they turn away from the holy figures, outward, toward the spectator. Figure 1.18: Worshiper, deities, and god, impression of cylinder seal (Old Akkadian Worship Scenes), Old Akkadian, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, c. 23502200 BC. The result is an image that primarily retains an aura of command, and demonstrates the forceful activity of the emperor in the world as builder and owner of property. For example, in the twelfth century, we find the small official in a Lectionary of the Lavra Monastery on Mount Athos (Lavra A 103, fol. The Theodore panel, it is safe to say, is a true donor portrait, in that it shows a real offering taking place. From: donor portrait in The Oxford Dictionary of the Renaissance Subjects: History Early Modern History (1500 to 1700) Reference entries Mention has already been made of a distinction that will play a large role in this study, between those that show the lay figures carrying either a church building or a manuscript and those that do not. Figure 1.5: John Komnenos and Irene with the Virgin, mosaic in south gallery of the Church of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, 111834. IV, 1319. Another variant of these scenes that finds its echo in Byzantine examples is the presentation scene, where a lesser deity leads one or more worshipers toward a higher deity.Footnote 28 In a further Akkadian seal, also in the Ashmolean Museum, we find a god seated on the right-hand side, approached by two deities (indicated by their horned headpieces) on the left. Power flows from the highest point, and infuses the recipient with status. Instead, you should start by analysing your data as a whole. [12] In subsequent centuries bishops, abbots and other clergy were the donors most commonly shown, other than royalty, and they remained prominently represented in later periods. Donors give for many reasons, but donors stop giving for primarily one reason; they don't know how their gift is being used. Before the 15th century a physical likeness may not have often been attempted, or achieved; the individuals depicted may in any case often not have been available to the artist, or even alive. [3] To do so during prayer is in accord with late medieval concepts of prayer, fully developed by the Modern Devotion. Total loading time: 0 You could not be signed in, please check and try again. Instead, you should start by analyzing your data as a whole. If you dont know who they are (yes, there can be more than one segment or portrait) you are fundraising in the dark. In this scene, then, an effort has been made to preserve something of the genuine contact of the true donor portrait, but not so much as to make the emperors seem like petitioners. Several images (to be discussed further below) do not fit easily into any of the categories proposed, or hover on the borderlines between them. In fact, the range that they demonstrate in this respect is far greater than perhaps any other iconographic type in the Byzantine repertoire. The purpose of donor portraits was to memorialize the donor and his family, and especially to solicit prayers for them after their death. They don't have to be an actual image, but they do need to conjure one - to consolidate everything you know about your donors, give them personality and form. Not sure if youve got the right information to work with? Portraiture in Renaissance and Baroque Europe | Essay | The [27], A further secular development was the portrait histori, where groups of portrait sitters posed as historical or mythological figures. In 2019, the university's Women & Science Initiative and Women in Science at Rockefeller came together in what is now called the Women & Science Portrait Initiative. Finally, artists captured their own likenesses in self-portraits (49.7.25; 14.40.618), where they freely pursued their own ends, whether to claim elevated status, to showcase technical mastery, or to seek frank self-reflection. 3v, Fig. [5], When a whole building was financed, a sculpture of the patron might be included on the facade or elsewhere in the building. Render date: 2023-04-30T17:36:33.386Z This is a deeply orthodox emperor, but not a humble one. More immediate forerunners of our portraits are also be found in the scenes of sacrificial offerings in ancient Greece and Rome. By the mid-15th century donors began to be shown integrated into the main scene, as bystanders and even participants. Its important to keep a log of key meetings, conversations, email threads, and notes. Moreover, the emperors do not turn to acknowledge Christ, but stand stiff, facing rigidly forward. Given the losses involved it would perhaps be rash to declare definitively that it is a late development, but the earliest example seems to be the Sinai icon of a supplicant before St. Irene mentioned above, which may be an eighth-century image (see Fig. Dragutin and Oliver, however, simply hold their churches in front of their chests. The Middle Ages, ushered in by the fall of the Roman Empire and the dissolution of its cultural influences in central and northern Europe, saw a complete overhaul in the style of portrait painting. Donor portraits appear in altarpieces and are essential parts of devotional diptychs and triptychs; in these smaller works used for worship in the home, a single sitter, a husband and wife, or a donor and his patron saint face a devotional image, such as the Virgin and Child, in an attitude of prayer. These scenes, however, are not the only ones demonstrating the overlapping concerns of the worldly and the spiritual. Some of the most interesting are the well-known imperial panels in the south gallery of the Church of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, of 102850 and 111834 respectively (Figs. Feature Flags: { Donor Portraits in Byzantine Art: The Vicissitudes of Contact between In portraiture, the smallest touches can hold the greatest significance. By 1490, when the large Tornabuoni Chapel fresco cycle by Domenico Ghirlandaio was completed, family members and political allies of the Tornabuoni populate several scenes in considerable numbers, in addition to conventional kneeling portraits of Giovanni Tornabuoni and his wife. donor portrait Quick Reference A portrait depicting the giver of a work of art or architecture in company with holy figures (Jesus, the Virgin, or saints); the convention goes back at least as far . Ist. Several significant differences are evident between this image and our Byzantine scenes, however, including, obviously, the presence of the sacrificial apparatus in the form of the altar. Additionally, however, it does convey his piety in founding the church, and he obtains the approval of God for his good deed. The transmission of power that we see in the coronations generally does not take place in standard portraits. Although none have survived, there is literary evidence of donor portraits in small chapels from the Early Christian period,[10] probably continuing the traditions of pagan temples. Donor portraits are very common in religious works of art, especially paintings, of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, the donor usually shown kneeling to one side, in the foreground of the image. 24 S. Eustratiades, Catalogue of the Greek Manuscripts in the Library of the Lavra on Mount Athos, Harvard Theological Studies 11 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1924), 11. In Byzantium, however, the prostration can be much more complete, with the back parallel to the ground and the head lowered. Gradually these traditions worked their way down the social scale, especially in illuminated manuscripts, where they are often owner portraits, as the manuscripts were retained for use by the person commissioning them. John and Irene are more upright and frontal than Zoe and Constantine, and their size relative to the holy figures has been increased. The emperor does not have to appear in a pose of humility because he makes no request. Look at your headline numbers. Creative personality, esthete with good organizational skills. A comparable style can be found in Florentine painting from the same date, as in Masaccio's Holy Trinity (142528) in Santa Maria Novella where, however, the donors are shown kneeling on a sill outside and below the main architectural setting. Over the next few centuries, portraiture would receive numerous other noteworthy overhauls. } In fact half of the 83 14th-century Venetian images, in what is intended to be a complete catalogue by Roberts, are of this group type. Hans Memlings portraits of Tommaso and Maria Portinari (14.40.626-27), painted around 1470, were also probably meant to flank the image of a saint in a small triptych, yet each likeness fills a whole panel and has the emphasis of a portrait in its own right. After many centuries in which generic representation had been the norm, distinctive portrait likenesses began to reappear in Europe in the fifteenth century. This speaks volumes about the change of tenor in the images. 3 G. Millet, La peinture du moyen ge en Yougoslavie, 4 vols. 1.3).Footnote 7. Figure 1.16: Worshiper approaching Shamash, Old Babylonian seal, the Oriental Institute Museum, Chicago, 17001530 BC. The image as a whole seems to be withdrawing from the possibilities of contact established by the earlier scene, and retreating toward standard imperial iconographic tropes. The Oxford Dictionary of the Renaissance . Often, even late into the Renaissance, the donor portraits, especially when of a whole family, will be at a much smaller scale than the principal figures, in defiance of linear perspective. One of the most famous and striking groups of Baroque donor portraits are those of the male members of the Cornaro family, who sit in boxes as if at the theatre to either side of the sculpted altarpiece of Gian Lorenzo Bernini's Ecstasy of St Theresa (1652). The purpose of this partnership was to commission the portrait of an historic woman scientist from Rockefeller. Figure 1.9: Emperors Constantine and Justinian with the Virgin, mosaic in southwest vestibule, Church of Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, late tenth century. [4] To do so during prayer is in accord with late medieval concepts of prayer, fully developed by the Modern Devotion. gr. Unlike the previous imperial images of this genre that we have examined, the emperor looks directly at Christ, who returns his look and raises his hand in blessing. The Church Father closest to Alexios, St. Dionysios the Areopagite, extends a scroll toward the emperor the front edge of the scroll clearly overlaps the painted frame of the image who lifts a hand to receive it. Instead, the scenes adopt some of the same vocabulary that makes the coronations successful: the emperor is upright, frontal, dignified, authoritative, and, not least, bathing in the glow of Christs blessing. Figure 1.17: Supplicants approaching deity, impression of cylinder seal (Old Akkadian Worship Scenes), Old Akkadian, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, c. 23402200 BC. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), vol. 3v, twelfth century. 1.23).Footnote 33 Diminutive worshipers on the right side of the image bring a goat to an altar; on the left side, in larger scale, are placed the gods (only the lower legs and hands of Asklepios are still visible), represented as being very much alive. They are your audience, the people reading your direct mail, visiting your website, or following you on social media. Hugo van der Goes, detail from " Donor with St John the Baptist", 1478-1480, oil on panel, H. 23.2cm W. 22.5cm The image of the man with St John the Baptist behind him is a particular kind of double portrait from this time period known as a donor portrait, where the subject would be painted alongside the saint from whom they received their name. Second Preliminary Report. ), The Glory of Byzantium: Art and Culture of the Middle Byzantine Era, AD 8431261 (New York: Abrams, 1997), 20910. Further, once we undertake a careful scrutiny of the images, we might also ask whether these two terms that we have been discussing, donor and ktetor, are themselves the most relevant categories to apply to the range of images we have so far seen. A specific example taken from a large range of possibilities is the picture of a supplicant in proskynesis named simply George in the Church of Hagios Stephanos in Kastoria (1338, Fig. Finally, to portray oneself consorting with divine figures is to demonstrate the elevated company that one keeps, and not all in society could afford to represent themselves in this way.Footnote 11. In these scenes the supplicants know their place exactly, and confess it as such. The resurgence of portraiture was thus a significant manifestation of the Renaissance in Europe. A portrait is typically defined as a representation of a specific individual, such as the artist might meet in life. 1.25). Yet, in addition to this, another change has also been made that seems to indicate a move in the opposite direction. During the Middle Ages the donor figures often were shown on a far smaller scale than the sacred figures; a change dated by Dirk Kocks to the 14th century, though earlier examples in manuscripts can be found. They are your audience, the people reading your direct mail, visiting your website, or following you on social media. Figure 1.12: Supplicant before St.Irene, icon, St. Katherines Monastery, Sinai, eighth or ninth century. Since there is no greater authority represented, there is no prickly path to negotiate in the relationship between varying grades of supreme power. Portraiture: the many faces of European portrait painting, explained Considering all that has been said about the desire for contact, it should come as no surprise to find that this is the last of such scenes in Byzantine art. But what if we told you she doesnt exist? The book that Alexios holds is clearly open, the top edges of the left- and right-hand sides forming a v-shape starting at the spine. Here are some of the key pieces of information we think a good donor portrait should include: *A note on GDPR: In order to collect, process, store and use personal data and information you need to have the right consent (a specific, informed and unambiguous indication of the subjects wishes). It is not to establish a relationship with an all-powerful Christ whose aid one desperately seeks at the most critical hour, but to impress the observer with their authority. Donor portraits have a continuous history from late antiquity, and the portrait in the 6th-century manuscript the Vienna Dioscurides may well reflect a long-established classical tradition, just as the author portraits found in the same manuscript are believed to do. III, 1705. 41 Von Simson, Sacred Fortress, 2729. It is often passionate and exaggerated, leaving little doubt that the physical exertions required to enter the position could only be motivated by the most powerful feelings toward the figure being adored. 1 - The History and Problematic of the Donor Portrait 11 For more on the subject of the interweaving of the two components of the dual agenda in luxury icons, with an emphasis on the social prestige accruing to donors, see T. Papamastorakis, The Display of Accumulated Wealth in Luxury Icons: Gift-Giving from the Byzantine Aristocracy to God in the Twelfth Century, in M. Vassilaki (ed. The frescoes are in the Poggi Chapel, in, Ainsworth, Maryan W. "Intentional Alterations of Early Netherlandish Painting". This concerns an increasing emotionalism corresponding broadly to the division brought about by iconoclasm. Let us begin with this one. Alexios shows no deference. A very late example of the old Netherlandish format of the triptych with the donors on the wing panels is Rubens' Rockox Triptych of 161315, once in a church over the tombstone of the donors and now in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp. It has long been observed that the donor portraits are the most outstanding aspect of the Crabbe Triptych, especially the portrait of Anna Willemzoon in the left wing, an extraordinary image of old age, and representative of the merging of the sacred and secular realms that is often present in the work of Memling and his contemporaries. Thus the ruler does not engage with Christ or beseech him. Once we have better defined the category as a whole, we will turn our attention to its chief characteristics, its emergence and development within Byzantine art, and an overview of the scholarship on the subject. (Paris: E. de Boccard, 1959), vol. In sum, then, the distinction that emerges most clearly from the above discussion concerns images that on the one hand demonstrate ownership, and on the other are preoccupied with contact, irrespective of whether they show the human figures giving a gift or not. To round out this examination of the chief characteristics of contact portraits, a further remarkable feature deserves comment. Donor portrait usually refers to the portrait or portraits of donors alone, as a section of a larger work, whereas votive portrait may often refer to a whole work of art intended as an ex-voto, including for example a Madonna, especially if the donor is very prominent. Interestingly, if we turn to a detailed study of the images we find some significant variations of iconography that correspond to the distinction that the languages draw. Yet, against this imposing group, the emperors hold their own. Actually, you dont have to imagine, with thankQ CRM, you can do it! Analytics:The great thing about data is that its everywhere. These paintings were called donor portraits, and their purpose was to inspire the commissioner and their loved ones toward prayer. 34 For many more scenes of a similar type, see A. Comella, I relievi votivi greci de periodo aracaic e classico (Bari: Edipuglia, 2002). The usefulness of this categorization as a heuristic device is demonstrated if we analyze the images involved from a different perspective, one to which many of the images themselves lead us: that of power relations. In the perilous mountains of Tibet, archaeologists unearthed ancient hand and footprints that seem to be the creative work of children. On balance, however, despite the increased emphasis on the donation, the overall bearing of the royal figures makes it seem as though they are not really giving their objects with any amount of conviction. For example, a chapel at Mals in South Tyrol has two fresco donor figures from before 881, one lay and the other of a tonsured cleric holding a model building. Mimesis. It exploits to a much greater degree the many expressive possibilities of the folding of the human body. Two of these are also in the Church of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, the first being the scene already mentioned earlier, the emperor in proskynesis mosaic. 13 The Vatican manuscript under discussion here is one of two imperial commissions of the Panoplia still extant, the other being Mosq. Although she does not deal explicitly with the problem, she follows much the same route as Jnsdttir, stating that He [the donor] was usually depicted holding his gift in his hands, and all of the subsequent examples she gives are of this type.Footnote 5 She thus implicitly sides with the view that only donation iconography images should be called donor portraits. Contact portraits themselves have a long history. Jan van Eycks infamous Arnolfini Portrait (1434) emphasizes not only the faces of their sitters but their possessions as well: The ceremonial garb, wooden slippers, and partially lit chandelier indicate the couples married status. Although none have survived, there is literary evidence of donor portraits in small chapels from the Early Christian period,[11] probably continuing the traditions of pagan temples. There are, however, three more scenes that seem to fall rather more definitively into the ambit of imperial donor or contact portraits that require further examination. How to create a great donor portrait - The Access Group Figure 1.6: Emperor Alexios Komnenos approaching Christ, Panoplia Dogmatica, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vatican, gr. 2) Dutch portraiture. 9 On these panels in general see T. Whittemore, The Mosaics of Hagia Sophia at Istanbul: Third Preliminary Report, Work Done in 19351938: The Imperial Portraits of the South Gallery (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1942).
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