From cave paintings to drawings of the great Pushkin: the history of the portrait profile

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The profile, which in the modern world is associated primarily with self-presentation in the Internet space, in its original meaning of a half-turn, a silhouette, is almost the same age as the fine arts. The emergence of a profile portrait, as well as the decline in its popularity, is directly related to the main stages in the development of human culture.

Drawing Lessons: Antiquity Profiles

The ancestors of modern man knew how to create images of their own kind even in the Paleolithic period. The surviving cave paintings show scenes from the life of a caveman, with animals and people usually drawn in profile. In ancient Egypt, a person's head was also depicted from a side view, while the body was turned towards the viewer. The Assyrians and artists of the early periods of the civilization of Ancient Greece adhered to the same rules. The fact is that drawing a profile required much less skill from the master than using other angles, nevertheless allowing to achieve similarities with the original and to realize the goals of the work.

One of the most famous ancient profile portraits is the Parisienne, a fresco from the Palace of Knossos in Crete depicting a young girl. Named so by the discoverer of the Minoan civilization Arthur Evans, "Parisienne" demonstrates the style in which the artists of Ancient Crete worked.

With the gradual improvement of the skills of ancient masters, other ways of depicting a person appeared, but they continued to refer to profiles quite often - primarily when minting coins. In the manufacture of cameos - jewelry that dates back to the fourth century BC. and represent a bas-relief made on precious or semiprecious stones, they also often resorted to a profile image, which was easier to make with maximum similarity and with less risk of spoiling the stone in case of failure.

The profiles of antiquity can be divided into "Greek" and "Roman": the former are distinguished by a single line of the forehead and nose, the latter by an aquiline, hooked nose. The fall of the Roman Empire and the subsequent times of medieval decline in the visual arts led to the loss of artists' skills in drawing a person in general and profile images in particular. But it was the coins of antiquity that helped revive the portrait genre in Europe after a millennium. They became a model for artists of a new cultural era.

Who was portrayed in profile during the Renaissance and why

The beginning of the Renaissance era is associated with the appeal to the portrait of a person, both pictorial and psychological. The artist became interested in the personality of the one who appeared on the canvas, and attention to a person as a creator, a creator, brought the image of a person to the fore. According to the old, medieval, canons, all attention should have been drawn to the figures of Christ, Madonna and saints, to whom prayers should be directed. Eye contact between the image in the picture and the person standing in front of it was achieved by depicting these figures from the front. Those who could not be the addressee of such a religious appeal were drawn in profile. This is how the face of Judas was traditionally depicted in paintings with the plot of the Last Supper, and the same was done with the images of demons.

Paintings of the early Renaissance were often created by order of wealthy connoisseurs of art, and therefore on the canvases of this period there are profiles of such donors, donors - as a rule, humbly bowing before the figure of a saint, but still occupying a noticeable place in the composition. According to tradition, male donors are placed on the right hand of the saint, women on the left. Artists gradually introduced more and more realism into their works, moving further away from the traditions of medieval painting.

For a long time, faces for secular portraits were painted in profile - in this way, artists relatively easily achieved similarities. One of the earliest portraits contains the image of the French king John II the Good. Often the artist was ordered posthumous portraits for the family of the deceased.

But with the development of the skills of artists, the emergence of many schools and with the growing interest in works of painting, the canons changed. More and more attention was paid to the correct transmission of the essence, personality of the characters, the paintings became more voluminous. If at the beginning of the 15th century the background for the figure was plain and flat, already in the second half a landscape appears in the background, the picture acquires depth, perspective arises.

The turning of the face in the painting "three quarters" is becoming popular, this technique is increasingly used when fulfilling orders for single portraits. Albrecht Durer, who created a revolutionary and even shocking self-portrait in its own way in 1500, was the first who completely "turned" his face in the picture to the viewer, full face. Previously, such an angle was allowed only when depicting saints.

Famous profiles

In the future, the outdated manner of creating a portrait gradually faded away. The profiles were used only when necessary, when the plot and composition of the picture required it. Sometimes the artist needed to draw the viewer's attention to the center of the picture or, conversely, outside of it, in which case the technique with a profile picture turned out to be successful.

In the sphere of minting coins and medals, the role of the profile remained unchanged - portraits of rulers and other prominent personalities continued to be depicted on metal in modern times. that the girl is very much like a woman's head on a silver dollar. Coins featuring a female profile on the obverse have indeed been minted in the United States for several centuries. The girl's head, depicted on the silver dollar, symbolized freedom.

Due to the relative simplicity of execution, a profile portrait can be performed not only by an artist, but also by an ordinary drawing lover. The famous sketches of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, which are now becoming independent exhibits of exhibitions, mainly consist of profiles of people familiar to the poet, heroes of his works, self-portraits, which Pushkin left more than fifty.

To grasp the main features of a person and in a few strokes to create an image similar to the original - this, perhaps, contains both the simplicity and the great potential of a profile portrait, which is always in demand, including in caricature.

The properties of a profile portrait sometimes make it the best way to express a person's image, to glorify him, to create what is called an avatar - as is the case with the famous profile. Anna Akhmatova, which cannot be confused with any other.