Abstract

"General and theoretical study devoted entirely to portraiture. Drawing on a broad range of images from Antiquity to the twentieth century, which includes paintings, sculptures, prints, cartoons, postage stamps, medals, documents and photographs... Richard Brilliant investigates the genre as a particular phenomenon in Western art that is especially sensitive to changes in the perceived nature of the individual in society... Brilliant presents a thematic and cogent analysis of the connections between the subject-matter of portraits and the beholders's response--the response he or she makes to the image itself and to the person it represents... the power of this imaginative transaction between the subject, the artist and the beholder... With 85 illustrations, 10 in full colour"--Back cover.