Perhaps one of the earliest portraits of El Greco created in Spain is the so-called “Portrait of a Cavalier with His Hand on His Chest” (c. 1577-1579). This is evidenced, first of all, by a more traditional, dark painting style built on shades of brownish tones with a dense, smooth brushstroke. A psychological neutrality of interpretation is typical, which will later give way to a much more active characterization.
This famous portrait El Greco represents, as it were, the image of a nobleman of his time elevated into the framework of the canon. Elegant, very calm, with a gesture of oath or conviction right hand on the chest, the unknown caballero embodies the characteristic of the Spanish aristocracy societygo, that is, the expression in appearance of equanimity, restraint, dignity.
The hilt of the Toledo sword is an eloquent detail of his strict appearance, a black suit decorated with a high collar and cuffs made of snow-white lace. Antonina Vallantin rightly notes that this type of Spaniard penetrated the stage and already lived on the pages of novels, but in order to be depicted, he had to wait for El Greco’s arrival in Toledo.
The portrait, however, is characterized by internal inconsistency, since the ideal aspect of the image does not quite correspond to the personality of the person being portrayed - the character depicted is not very meaningful. The impression is achieved by the pictorial structure of the canvas, where the face and hand with a symbolic arrangement of fingers emerge from the dark background as light spots; The precious beauty of thin shimmering lace and the hilt of a sword, as if hanging in the air, acquires special fragility. The detachment of the caballero’s gaze, endowed with the typical Elgrek’s odd-eyed look, enhances the expressiveness of the image.
There is almost no evidence left about the life of the Cretan Domenico Theotokopouli, the artist who conquered Spanish Toledo under the name El Greco, that is, the Greek. The “follies” of his character and strange pictorial manner amazed many and forced them to take up the pen - but only a few letters have survived. One of them contains the following lines: “... the weather was beautiful, the spring sun was shining gently. It gave joy to everyone, and the city looked festive. Imagine my surprise when I entered El Greco's studio and saw that the shutters on the windows were closed, and therefore it was difficult to see what was around. El Greco himself sat on a stool, doing nothing, but awake. He didn't want to go out with me because, according to him, sunlight interfered with his inner light..."
There is almost no evidence left about Domenico the man, only echoes: that he lived in grand style, kept a rich library, read many philosophers and also sued clients (they loved him, but more often did not understand him), died almost in poverty - like the thin rays of daylight light breaks through the cracks in the “closed shutters” of his life. But they do not distract from the main thing - from the inner light that fills the paintings of the artist El Greco. Especially portraits.
There are no landscapes that open behind the person being portrayed, there is no abundance of details that attract a curious eye. Even the hero's name is often left out of the picture. Because all this would prevent you from seeing the face. And eyes, deep, dark, looking straight at you. It’s hard to tear yourself away from them, and if you force yourself to see the gesture, you’ll stop again in thought.
This is the “Portrait of a Cavalier with His Hand on His Chest” (1577-1579), painted by the master shortly after he moved to Toledo. This portrait is recognized as one of the best in spanish painting XVI century. The stranger El Greco created “vivid images of Spanish life and history”, which capture “genuine living beings, combining in themselves everything that is to be admired in our people, everything heroic and indomitable, with those opposite qualities that cannot but be reflected, without destroying its very essence” (A. Segovia). Aristocrats from the ancient families of Toledo became the true heroes of El Greco, he saw them Inner Light- their nobility and dignity, fidelity to duty, intelligence, refinement of manners, courage, external restraint and internal impulse, the strength of the heart, which knows what it lives and dies for...
Day after day, visitors to the Prado Gallery stop in front of the unknown hidalgo, surprised, with the words: “Like alive...” Who is he, this knight? Why does he open his heart with such sincerity? Why are his eyes so attractive? And this gesture of oath? And the hilt of the sword?.. Perhaps from these questions a legend was born that the person depicted in the portrait is another great Spaniard: Miguel de Cervantes. A warrior and writer who told the world the story of a knight of sad image, who was given the same divine gift as El Greco - to see people as they should be, to see their inner light...
to the magazine "Man Without Borders"
Man in the mirror of art: portrait genre
Portrait(French portrait) - an image of a specific person or group of people. The portrait genre became widespread in ancient times in sculpture, and then in painting and graphics. But external resemblance this is not the only thing that an artist must convey. It is much more important when the master transfers the inner essence of a person onto the canvas and conveys the atmosphere of time. Distinguishfront door And chamber portraits. There are portraitsdoubles And group. They are intended to decorate state halls, and to praise certain persons, and to preserve the memory of people united by professional, spiritual, and family ties. Special categoryamounts to self-portrait, on which the artist depicts himself.
Any of the portraits can be attributed either to a psychological portrait or
to a portrait-character, or to a portrait-biography.
Art helps to know a person. Not only to see his external appearance
face, but also to understand its essence, character, mood, etc. The portrait is almost
always realistic. After all, its main goal is the recognition of the depictedthere is a person on it. However, usually the artist's task is not to accuratelycopying the external features of a model, not imitation of nature, but a “pictorial re-creation” of a person’s image. It is no coincidence that the desire arisesjust recognize yourself in the portrait, and maybe even discover something new in itself.
The viewer involuntarily conveys the artist’s attitude towards the model. Important
is everything that expresses emotions, attitude towards life, towards people: facial expressions
depicted face, eye expression, lip line, head turn, posture,
gesture.
Often we interpret a work from the perspective of a person today
day, we attribute to the character traits that are completely unusual for his time, that is, we strive to understand the unknown through the known.
It is also very important to show the social position of the person being portrayed, to create a typical image of a representative of a certain era.
As a genre, portraiture appeared several thousand years ago in ancient art. Among the frescoes of the famous Knossos Palace, found by archaeologists during excavations on the island of Crete, there is whole line pictorial images of women related to XVI century BC. Although researchers called these images “court ladies,” we do not know who the Cretan masters were trying to show - goddesses, priestesses or noble ladies dressed in elegant dresses.
"Parisian". Fresco from the Palace of Knossos, 16th century BC.
The most famous portrait of a young woman, called “Parisian Woman” by scientists. We see in front of us a profile (according to the traditions of the art of that time) image of a young woman, very flirtatious and not neglecting cosmetics, as evidenced by her eyes, outlined in a dark outline, and brightly painted lips.
The artists who created fresco portraits of their contemporaries did not delve into the characteristics of the models, and the external similarity in these images is very relative.
Religious ideas in Ancient Egypt associated with the cult
dead, determined the desire to convey a portrait likeness in a sculptural image of a person: the soul of the deceased had to find its container.
At the beginning of the 20th century. archaeologists have discovered a wonderful portrait of Queen Nefertiti to the whole world.
Created in XIV century BC e.,this image amazes with the smoothness of the profile lines, the grace of the flexible neck, the airy lightness and fluid transitions of the irregular but charming features of a woman’s face.
Nefertiti was not only the queen of Egypt, she was revered as a goddess. The most famous and perhaps the most beautiful of the wives of the Egyptian pharaohs lived with her crowned husband in a huge luxurious palace on east coast Nila.
In art Ancient Greece a special place is occupied by generalized, idealized images of heroes or gods. In the merging of the spiritual and physicalartists and sculptors saw the embodimentbeauty and harmony of man. 
In his famous “Discoball”, the 5th century sculptor. BC e Miron strives, first of all, to convey a sense of movement with the stability and monumentality of the lines of the body, without focusing the audience’s attention on the features of the face. 
The statue of Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, sculpted by the sculptor Praxiteles in the 4th century exudes special tenderness and warmth. BC. for a temple on the island of Crete. There is no divine grandeur in this image, the image breathesamazing peace and chastity. 
The portrait of Caracalla captures the image of a strong, evil and criminal man. Knitted eyebrows, a wrinkled forehead, a suspicious, squinting gaze, and sensual lips are striking in the strength of their characteristics. A strong head is set on a thick, muscular neck. Steep curls of hair are pressed tightly to the head and emphasize its round shape. They do not have a decorative character, as in the previous period. A slight asymmetry of the face is conveyed: the right eye is smaller and placed below the left, the line of the mouth is slanted. The sculptor who created this portrait possessed all the wealth of virtuoso marble processing techniques; all his skill was aimed at creating a work that conveys with utmost expressiveness the physical and mental characteristics of Caracalla’s personality.
The Roman portrait is associated with the cult of ancestors, with the desire to preserve their appearance for posterity. This contributed to the development of realistic portraiture. He is distinguished by the individual characteristics of a person: greatness,
restraint or cruelty and despotism, spirituality or arrogance.
The heyday of the portrait genre began during the Renaissance, when main value world has become an active and purposeful person, capable of changing this world and going against the odds. In the 15th century, artists began to create independent portraits, which showed models against the backdrop of panoramic majestic landscapes.
B. Pinturicchio. “Portrait of a Boy” Art Gallery, Dresden
Pinturicchio (Pinturicchio) (c. 1454-1513) Italian painter of the Early Renaissance, known primarily for his remarkable frescoes.
This is the “Portrait of a Boy” by B. Pinturicchio. However, the presence of fragments of nature in portraits does not create integrity, unity of a person and the world around him; the person being portrayed seems to obscure natural landscape. Only in portraits of the 16th century does harmony emerge, a kind of microcosm
Portrait art of the Renaissance seems to combine
testaments of Antiquity and the Middle Ages. It sounds solemn again
a hymn to a mighty man with his unique physical appearance, spiritual world, individual traits of character and temperament.
A recognized master of the portrait genre was the German artist Albrecht Durer, whose self-portraits still delight viewers and serve as an example for artists.
In "Self-Portrait" Albrecht Durer(1471–1528) the desire is guessed artist to find an idealized hero. Images of universal geniuses of the 16th century, masters of the High Era Renaissance - Leonardo da Vinci and Rafael Santi - personify ideal person that time.
Michelangelo da Caravaggio(1573-1610) Italian “Lute Player” St. Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum
Among the famous portrait masterpieces of that time is “The Lute Player” Michelangelo da Caravaggio(1573-1610), in which the artist develops a motif taken from real everyday life.
El Greco(1541-1614) Spain. Portrait of a man with his hand on his chest
At the end of the 16th century in creativity Spanish artist El Greco
(1541-1614) arises new type a portrait that conveysthe usual internal concentration of a person, the intensity of hisspiritual life, absorption in one's own inner world. To do this, the artist uses sharp lighting contrasts, originalcolor, jerky movements or frozen poses. Spirituality and unique beauty the pale elongated ones he captured are differentfaces with huge dark, seemingly bottomless eyes.IN XVII century An intimate (chamber) portrait occupied an important place in European painting, the purpose of which was to show a person’s state of mind, his feelings and emotions. A recognized master of this type of portrait was Dutch artist Rembrandt, who painted many soulful images.
“Portrait of an Old Lady” (1654) is imbued with sincere feeling. These works present the viewer with ordinary people who have neither noble ancestors nor wealth. But for Rembrandt, who opened a new page in the history of the portrait genre, it was important to convey the spiritual kindness of his model, her truly human qualities.
In the 17th century the main criterion of artistry becomes the material world, perceived through the senses. In the portrait, imitation of reality replaced the incomprehensibility and inexplicability of a person’s mental manifestations and his diverse spiritual impulses. The charm of soft velvet and airy silk, fluffy fur and fragile glass, soft, matte leather and sparkling hard metal is conveyed at this time with the highest skill.
Portraits of the Great Dutchman Rembrandt(1606-1669) are considered, not without reason, the pinnacle portrait art. They rightfully received the name of portraits-biographies. Rembrandt has been called the poet of suffering and compassion. People who are modest, needy, forgotten by everyone are close and dear to him. The artist treats the “humiliated and insulted” with special love. In terms of the nature of his creativity, he is compared to F. Dostoevsky. His portrait-biographies reflect a complex fate full of hardships and hardships ordinary people who, despite the severe trials that befell them, have not lost their human dignity and warmth.
Having barely crossed the threshold separating the 17th century. from XVIII, we will see in the portraits a different breed of people, different from their predecessors. Courtly aristocratic culture brought to the fore the Rococo style with its sophisticated, seductive, thoughtfully languid, dreamily absent-minded images.
Drawing portraits of artists Antoine Watteau(1684-1721), Francois Boucher(1703-1770) and others are light, agile, their color is full of graceful tints, and is characterized by a combination of exquisite halftones.
Slide 27 A. Watteau. (1684-1721)Mezzeten
Painting of the Rococo and Neoclassical eras.
Painting by the French painter Antoine Watteau “Mezzeten”. In the period 1712-1720, Watteau became interested in writing scenes from theatrical life. Watteau used sketches of the actors’ poses, gestures, and facial expressions he liked, which he made in the theater, which became for him a haven of living feelings. The romantic and melancholy image of the hero is full of love poetry fair theater, an actor performing a serenade in the film “Mezzeten”.
Monument to Peter I by French sculptor Etienne Maurice Falconet
The search for the heroic, significant, monumental in art is connected in the 18th century. with the time of revolutionary changes. One of the ingenious sculptural portraits of world art is the monument
Peter I by French sculptor Etienne Maurice Falconet(1716-1791), erected in St. Petersburg in 1765-1782 He is intended as an image of a genius and creator. Indomitable energy, emphasized by the rapid movement of horse and rider, is expressed in the imperious gesture of an outstretched hand, in the courageous open a face with fearlessness, will, clarity of spirit.
XIX century introduced the variability of artistic tastes and the relativity of the concept of beauty into the art of portraiture. Innovative quests in painting are now directed towards a rapprochement with reality, towards the search for the diversity of images.
Eugene Delacroix(1798-1863). Portrait of F. Chopin
During the period of romanticism, a portrait is perceived as an image of the inner “I” of a person endowed with free will. Real romantic pathos appears in the portrait of F. Chopin by the French
romantic artist Eugene Delacroix(1798-1863).
Before us is a real psychological portrait, conveying the passion, ardor of the composer’s nature, his inner essence. The picture is filled with rapid, dramatic movement. This effect is achieved by turning Chopin’s figure, the intense coloring of the picture, contrasting chiaroscuro, fast, intense strokes,
The artistic structure of Delacroix’s portrait is consonant with the music of the Etude
E major for piano by Chopin. Behind it there is a real image - about-
times of the Motherland. After all, one day, when his favorite student was playing this etude,
Chopin raised his hands up with the exclamation: “Oh, my Motherland!”
Chopin's melody, genuine and powerful, was his main means of expression, his language. The power of his melody is in its strength
impact on the listener. It is like a developing thought, which is similar to the unfolding of the plot of a story or the content of historically important
th messages.
In portrait art of the XX-XXI centuries. Conditionally, two directions can be distinguished. One of them continues classical traditions realistic art, glorifying the beauty and greatness of Man, the other is looking for new abstract forms and ways of expressing his inner world.
Representatives of the modernist movements that emerged in the 20th century also turned to the portrait genre. The famous man left us many portraits French artist Pablo Picasso. From these works one can trace how the master’s work developed from the so-called. blue period to cubism.
Slide 32 Picasso (1881-1973) "Portrait of Ambroise Vollard."
The ideas of analytical cubism found their original embodiment in Picasso’s work “Portrait of Ambroise Vollard”.
Creative tasks
Find the portraits discussed in the text. Compare them with each other, identify similar and different features. Give your own interpretation of their images.
Which portraits would you classify as traditional classical art, and which ones would you classify as abstract art? Give reasons for your opinion.
Match the language various directions portrait painting. Determine the expressiveness of lines, color, color, rhythm, composition of each of them.
Listen musical compositions. Match the portraits with those works that are consonant with the images captured on them.
Artistic and creative task
Prepare an album, newspaper, almanac, computer presentation (optional) on the topic “The genre of portraiture in the culture of different times.”
Include information about artists, sculptors, graphic artists, as well as poems, prose passages, and fragments of musical works that are consistent with the images of your portrait gallery.
ListenMusical works:Chopin Nocturne in b minor; F. Chopin etude in E major;
El caballero de la mano en el pecho"Knight with a hand on his chest"- painting by the Spanish artist El Greco, painted in Toledo around 1580. Best known in the series secular portraits unknown caballeros in black clothes and white cutters on a dark background. Currently stored in the Prado.
The caballero pose can mean taking an oath, or showing trust when concluding a contract, or the noble origin of a character, or even a secret conditioned signal. A golden sword and medallion indicate wealth and belonging to high society. The character's appearance is typical of a nobleman from the Spanish Golden Age. During the restoration of the painting, it turned out that initially the background was not black, but light gray, but over time the painting darkened. The richness of shades on dark clothes indicates the influence of the Venetian school of painting on El Greco.
It was previously believed that “The Knight with His Hand on His Chest” is a portrait of Cervantes, but now most art historians are inclined to believe that the portrait depicts Juan de Silva y Ribera, third Marquis of Montemayor and alcalde of the Alcazar of Toledo. Art critic Alex Burghart and artist Robert Shrive allow the possibility that this is a self-portrait of the artist.
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Notes
Excerpt characterizing the Knight with his hand on his chest
“On the contrary, everything seems to be fine, ma cousine,” said Pierre with that habit of playfulness that Pierre, who always embarrassedly endured his role as a benefactor in front of the princess, acquired for himself in relation to her.- Yes, it’s good... good well-being! Today Varvara Ivanovna told me how different our troops are. You can certainly attribute it to honor. And the people have completely rebelled, they stop listening; My girl started being rude too. Soon they will start beating us too. You can't walk on the streets. And most importantly, the French will be here tomorrow, what can we expect! “I ask one thing, mon cousin,” said the princess, “order me to be taken to St. Petersburg: whatever I am, I cannot live under Bonaparte’s rule.”
- Come on, ma cousine, where do you get your information from? Against…
- I will not submit to your Napoleon. Others want it... If you don't want to do it...
- Yes, I will do it, I’ll order it now.
The princess was apparently annoyed that there was no one to be angry with. She sat down on a chair, whispering something.
“But this is being conveyed to you incorrectly,” said Pierre. “Everything is quiet in the city, and there is no danger.” I was reading just now...” Pierre showed the princess the posters. – The Count writes that he answers with his life that the enemy will not be in Moscow.
“Oh, this count of yours,” the princess spoke angrily, “is a hypocrite, a villain who himself incited the people to rebel.” Wasn’t he the one who wrote in those stupid posters that whoever it was, drag him by the crest to the exit (and how stupid)! Whoever takes it, he says, will have honor and glory. So I was quite happy. Varvara Ivanovna said that her people almost killed her because she spoke French...
“Yes, it’s so... You take everything to heart,” said Pierre and began to play solitaire.
Despite the fact that the solitaire had worked out, Pierre did not go to the army, but remained in empty Moscow, still in the same anxiety, indecision, in fear and at the same time in joy, expecting something terrible.
The next day, the princess left in the evening, and his chief manager came to Pierre with the news that the money he required to outfit the regiment could not be obtained unless one estate was sold. The general manager generally represented to Pierre that all these undertakings of the regiment were supposed to ruin him. Pierre had difficulty hiding his smile as he listened to the manager’s words.
“Well, sell it,” he said. - What can I do, I can’t refuse now!