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During his pacification of France after the Wars of Religion, Henri IV savvily made use of print in order to legitimize his rule. Portraiture was a particularly important genre. Working with printmakers, Henri commissioned many engravings of himself in a popular three-quarter bust-length oval composition against a dark background. Rather than portraying Henri in a classicizing or mythological guise, these prints depict the king as himself; moreover, these works are notable for their highly refined burin technique and their meticulous rendering of the monarch’s physical features and costume. This article investigates how these portrait prints of Henri, in their attentive treatment of royal corporeality, employed newly introduced Netherlandish engraving techniques and modes of representation to engage with traditional legal discourse surrounding the princely body. As a central part of Henri’s artistic program, these portraits sought to address pressing political issues concerning the royal body, such as legitimacy and succession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the background of the construction of New Seonwonjeon Hall in Changdeokgung Palace, the current state of the royal portraits of the Joseon dynasty that are stored there, and the court paintings installed to decorate the space where these eojin (御眞 royal portraits) are installed, such as folding screen paintings of five peaks and folding screen paintings of peonies. New Seonwonjeon Hall was constructed in the rear garden of Changdeokgung Palace in 1921 by recycling elements from royal buildings brought from Gyeongbokgung Palace and Changdeokgung Palace. In the early 1900s the Japanese Government-General of Korea implemented a policy of minimizing the national rites for the royal family of the Joseon dynasty, and the shrine buildings in the respective palaces were demolished. Although this place is part of the dark history of the Japanese occupation period, it is also the last jinjeon (royal portrait hall 眞殿) ever built and enshrines the final 48 portraits of the kings of Joseon. Furthermore, it is a historical site housing relics related to royal portraits. Although most of the royal portraits in this hall were lost during the Korean War, folding screens of five peaks and folding screens of peonies and other royal paintings that decorated the areas around the eojin have survived, shedding light on the way paintings were installed inside a royal portrait hall, the traditional decoration known as "majestic ornamentation," and the state of court paintings from the time after the Academy of Painting 圖畵署 was abolished until the mid-1930s. In conclusion, it is the only surviving royal portrait hall and shows the tradition of royal portrait production and "majestic ornamentation" 莊嚴 from the Joseon dynasty. New Seonwonjeon Hall offers important data on the trends in court painting, which did not cease even under Japanese colonial rule. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the functionalities and styles of Joseon paintings that were transmitted to Japan by considering them in terms of provenance and as objects with cultural biographies; further, this paper will note trends in Japanese collections regarding these works, particularly paintings on screens. Research on the history of art ownership looks at how artworks assume new cultural contexts through the journey from their place of origin to the final destination, and how new meanings are created through interactions between the different actors as human networks are built. Also, the function and implication of screens as diplomatic gifts will be examined by looking at the Joseon paintings which were reproduced onto screens. Screens were produced by collecting many paintings. Analysis of this method will provide insight into how objects evolve in cultural and materialistic terms. Based on the abundance of materials collected in the past century and the analysis of painting styles of the surviving works, this paper will perform a literature review from various angles and present recommendations regarding the study of Joseon paintings held in Japan. A case analysis will illustrate how works created new functions and meanings as they met various people--viewers, patrons, connoisseurs, and owners--during their journey departing the artist's hand and arriving in a new cultural environment, which will highlight the changes of the cultural and material biographies of Joseon paintings in Japan. In particular, paintings concerning Korean embassies have survived with a relatively clear record of provenance, and many of those works remain intact as they have not moved around within Japan since their arrival from Korea. But some were cut and mounted on silk scrolls and reborn into Japanese-style screens in combination with other paintings and calligraphic works after the occurrence of brush talks or singing events. These variations are attributable to the functionalities and characteristics of screens and influenced the way viewers sensed and appreciated the works. Tracing the changes which the objects underwent offers insight into the process of repurposing Korean paintings in cultural and material terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Diego Velázquez's Portrait of Juan Martínez Montañés, a sculptor models a bust of king Philip IV. Whereas the figure of the sitter, and even the background, are highly finished, the bust is sketched in the most general of outlines. The painting's purposeful incompleteness, this essay argues, stems from Velázquez's experience as a censor of royal portraits. These images were subjected to strictures because they were said to be surrogates of the monarch rather than mere representations. By suspending work on the king's bust in the painting, Velázquez astutely fulfilled the demands of depicting a fellow artist at work on his most important commission, while circumventing the subtle codes for making royal images. Although there was concern that the larger corpus of kingly portraiture could be destabilized by exemplars that did not fit its general parameters, individual artists and monarchs actually developed idiosyncratic solutions for representing the king with some frequency. Velázquez's portrait, which represents one such solution, is examined alongside, and contrasted against, a number of other examples, in order to demonstrate the flexibility of this seemingly rigid image type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chhoti Sadri inscription of the Mānavāyani king Gauri (490-91 ce) of Malwa is a most unusual specimen of a Sanskrit verse praśasti. Its remarkably poor Sanskrit has attracted the most attention, but its rhetorical structure is also quite abnormal. It is proposed here that such unusual features as the first person presentation and the fronting of subjects with demonstrative pronouns suggest a setting involving an actual, or perhaps only an imagined, presentation of a royal portrait gallery, such as are attested both in Sanskrit literature and in Indian archaeology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contemporary portraits of Duke Henry of Saxony, who was elected king in 919, and is also known as, Henry the Fowler', have not been investigated as a whole so far, though the 1100th anniversary of his ascension to the throne was celebrated last year. Research in this period with only few surviving written documents and artificial objects has to consider original charters and their still existing seals, as well as art objects, mainly in carved stones, and even archaeological contexts, especially coins respectively jewels. The first seal of King Henry survives only in the form of two prints from the years 920 and 925. His profile bust appears slightly humble with a simple circlet and his military coat, the paludamentum, without a representative brooch. However, it clearly reflects the style of Roman emperors which is known from classical gemstones or their post-antique imitations. Such gems were constantly used by the Carolingian kings for sealing their documents until Louis IV. the Child around 910. The importance King Henry placed on demonstrating unity, especially in his early reign, is evident from the first mentioned charter from 920, a privilege for the venerable monastery of Fulda. There, at the burial place of his direct predecessor, Conrad I. and also of Saint Boniface, Henry explicitly proclaimed himself successor of Louis and Conrad. On this occasion, Henry had the opportunity to take a look at the military type of Conrad's seal which survives at his privilege for the monastery of Fulda from 912. - No later than 922 Henry started to use a new seal when celebrating Easter at his newly founded residence in Quedlinburg in Saxony. In this second seal Henry is presented as a distinguished ruler and powerful leader with a highly decorated crown, wearing a shield and raising his (Holy) Lance. This image may be interpreted as a sign of consolidated kingship and ensured dynasty. Traces on the surviving seal prints indicate that the matrices of both seals were made from semiprecious stones, probably rock crystal. The region in which carving of rock crystals was at this time highly developed was Lotharingia, especially the area between Aachen, Metz and Treves. - A third portrait further illustrates the exemplary function of Roman emperor portraits for the royal representation of Henry. The so-called Heginric-Medaillon came to light at the archaeological site of Klein-Roscharden II near Oldenburg (conserved at Berlin, Münzkabinett). The inscribed little silver relief was manufactured in the technique of coins and later garnished with filigree as a jewel. It clearly imitates Late Roman coinage, as can be seen on the imperial diadem which had been in use since Constantine I. Highly precious coins of gold, the so-called multipla, found their way as tributes to Central Europe and came into the possession of Frankish and even Saxon elites, as proven by a recent find at Fredenbeck/Lower Saxony. So there is clear evidence that the Late Antique and Carolingian portrait tradition remained essential for the representation of the king of a new dynasty. Henry himself could and probably did wear the matrices of his seals, made of transparent rock crystal with a metal setting, as a highly impressive jewel with his own ideal portrait. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes is one of the major figures of European art. From royal portraits to bizarre, grotesque illustrations, his legacy demonstrates a tortured genius, generating some of the most compelling art ever produced. His story is also the story of Spain during one of the most tumultuous passages of its history. In the winter of 1792-93, Goya experienced a mysterious illness resulting in lifelong deafness. After that, his work became more negative, with thick, bold strokes of dark colour. Scholars have suggested various diagnoses on the basis of Master's symptoms, but the exact nature of the illness has never been identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article considers the meaning of the details in the dress and bodily features of Saint Louis or Louis IX of France. Topics discussed include description of the representation of Louis IX, instances of wrong identifications of the images of Saint Louis, and two trends in the representations of Saint Louis. It also features the first type of image of the king.

This article combines bibliography, book history, literary and traditional textual criticism with phylogenetic analysis to infer the publishing history and textual descent of a short printed ballad history of England--The Wandering Jew's Chronicle. Probably first published in 1634, The Wandering Jew's Chronicle most commonly survives as a 'broadside ballad'--a cheaply-printed songsheet-- illustrated with woodcut portraits of kings and queens of England. It remained in print until ca.1830, its text and illustrations updated to the present. Although in partial synchrony with English history, much of its publishing history and textual descent is uncertain. This article demonstrates how historical evidence, taken in particular from book trade history, may be usefully combined with textual and bibliographical evidence, and that it is at times essential for understanding the descent of the text. The textual descent of the ballad is visualized in a stemma that summarizes key findings from both traditional and phylogenetic analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a report from a March 25-28, 2014 conference in Passau, Germany on the intersection of humanities and computer technology organized by the Digital Humanities im deutschsprachigen Raum digital humanities association. Topics of presentations delivered included the definition of digital humanities including the delineation of the appropriate instances of the application of information technologies to humanities research, the use of information technology in archaeology, and the color red in visual depictions of 19th-century rulers.

This essay considers the iconography of George of Denmark (1653-1708), the consort of Queen Anne. Of the few male monarchical consorts in the British Isles, George of Denmark has received the least attention from historians, and in turn his portraiture has been overlooked. Unlike Philip II or Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley (previous consorts of queens regnant in England and Scotland respectively), George was not made king, and his lack of political power appears to have been addressed in his portraiture, where he appropriated earlier male Stuart portrait types and assumed the martial visual language of the male monarch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on Ottoman imperial portrait books and the influence of Western artists and oil paintings from Venice, Italy. The article discusses the role of the Venetian painter Gentile Bellini at the Ottoman court, the portrait collection of Venetian physician Paolo Giovio and the significance of costumes to classify people in Ottoman portraiture. The article also discusses portraits of sultans including Mehmed II, Suleyman I and Murad III as well as the role of physiognomy in portraiture and the Ottoman portrait book the "Şemā'ilnāme" and book "Elogia" by Giovio.

The Triple Bark Shrine of Seti II at Karnak provides us with the only known reference for his son and heir, Prince Seti-Merenptah. In two of the chapels, those of Mut (eastern wall) and Khonsu (western wall), the prince is depicted directly behind his father, who presents offerings to the Theban triad. In the central chapel dedicated to Amun, the figure occupying the position behind the king on both walls has been thoroughly expunged along with the accompanying texts providing his identity. This article seeks to present the epigraphic data from the Seti II bark shrine and refine Yurco's interpretation of them through analysis of the alterations and palimpsest inscriptions in the shrine's relief decoration. We will also reassess the historical implications of these reliefs as related to the life of Prince Seti-Merenptah and the early career of Chancellor Bay under Seti II. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A literary criticism of the play "The Duchess of Malfi" by John Webster is presented. It focuses on the appearance of waxworks in the play, noting critics' responses. The author considers waxworks within the context of early modern effigies, particularly royal portraits, and reflects on motifs of portraiture and replication in the play.

In 1900, the Encyclopedia Britannica requested an original, previously unpublished portrait from Kaiser Wilhelm II for its forthcoming edition. The German emperor denied the request, instead advising the British publishers to find an existing photograph on the open market. A few years later, when a Berlin-based association for hunting dogs needed a cover shot for its journal, the Kaiser gladly sat for the picture. From a twenty-first-century perspective, Wilhelm's choice seems a bizarre case of misplaced priorities: the Kaiser took care to position himself among the hounds, but left his encyclopedia image in the hands of foreign publishers. Was this gaffe an example of what Wilhelm II's grandson, Louis Ferdinand, later criticized as the Kaiser's “deficient” sense of public relations, his feeling that “the imperial family stands high above the need to worry about publicity”? In England, mused the royal heir, “publicity is taken much more seriously”—after all, as early as the 1860s, Queen Victoria had courted public support by publishing her family portraits and private diaries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The objective of this article is to address the significance of craftsmanship in the production and decoration of royal images in present-day Thailand, especially portraits of King Chulalongkorn (r. 1868-1910). In the 1990s, King Chulalongkorn became the object of a nationwide personality cult and as a consequence portraits of the king flooded the country. The explosion of portraits made worshippers want to create a distinction between their own objects and other reproductions, and, by implication, between themselves and other worshippers. Using Igor Kopytoff's notion of "singularization' a paradox is explained: in spite of virtually all portraits being mass-produced commodities, the owners of such images strive for their uniqueness. It is argued that crafting is a specific ritualized practice that singularizes the end product as a fine piece of craftsmanship. A vital aspect of this singularity is the object's making in the open, [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1547, D. João de Castro, viceroy of India, commissioned Gaspar Correia to execute the painting portraits of the rulers who preceded him in the task of represent the Portuguese sovereignty in that part of the world. Over the centuries, this painting gallery increased and, currently, is on display at the Archaeological Museum of Goa. In 1894, Manuel de Oliveira Gomes da Costa, Captain for the Overseas and Aid de Camp of the General-Governor of India, intervened in some of the viceroys portraits, carrying out, thus, restorations works clearly questionable at the level of the introduced changes. Gomes da Costa's interventions, later extinguished by the restoration works carried out following the mission performed by the Study Squad for the Monuments of the Portuguese India in 1951, are of the greatest importance once they demonstrate, simultaneously, the poorly known artistic side of an individual that, in 1926, was President of the Republic, and one of the restoration trends of late 19th century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses Italian baroque artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini's 1621-1623 portrait bust of Pope Gregory XV Ludovisi. The author suggests that the portrait fits the Counter-Reformation tradition of appearing humble in portraits, established by Pope Paul III Farnese. The author discusses the clothing of the sculpture following Gregory XV's death and focuses on the perception of portraiture in the early modern period. The author suggests that portraits acquire a magical quality when standing in for an absent person, using artist Peter Paul Rubens' Medici cycle of paintings as an example, and discusses the idea of the transubstantiation of portraits in relation to the Catholic Eucharist. Other topics include animism in wax portraits, portraits of rulers, and portraits of the Medici family.

The article focuses on the good reputation that the city council of Lima, Peru will have by displaying a portrait of the viceroy of Peru in its meeting chambers. It states that the portrait represents the past viceroy, who gained the love of the people under his governance. Furthermore, the decision of city council of having the said portrait is for the benefit of the office and not for the acknowledgment of the works of the viceroy.

This paper offers a cultural interpretation of two images of Muscovite royalty: the 'portrait' of Ivan the Terrible on a gun by Karsten Middeldorp (1559) and the image of Fedor Ivanovich on the famous Tsar Cannon by Andrei Chokhov (1586). It is argued that dynastic politics, Russia's military aggression and the growing interest in the figure of the tsar required the visualization of the tsar's power both in Muscovy and in the West. Royal portraiture expanded the cultural image of the Russian monarchy. The Muscovite tsar became a recognizable public figure who embodied the military might of Muscovy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gottfried Bernhard Göz (1717-1780), the Augsburg painter and graphic artist, presented the allegorical portrait of Maria Theresa, as the Hungarian ruler, with a royal motto: Justice and Mercy. The characteristic feature of the composition is a hussar looking out directly from the painting and symbolizing the most loyal subject of the nation, ready to give his life and blood for the sovereign Lady. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 1800 and 1801 David painted Napoleon Crossing the Alps (also known as Napoleon at the Saint Bernard Pass). The painting depicts General Bonaparte riding a horse, which recalls the exploits of Hannibal and Charlemagne. This iconography is not new; the equestrian portraits of generals, princes, kings and emperors date back to the Italian Renaissance period, and are inspired in the public sculptures raised in Imperial Rome, particularly that of emperor Marcus Aurelius. During the Age of Absolutism, royal portraits on prancing horses, which had a precise symbolic meaning in the books of Emblematics, became remarkably successful. The canvas by David constitutes a revision of that iconography. Furthermore, it adds a historic dimension to the model. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the equestrian portrait would survive --firstly, from nationalistic and romantic perspectives, and later through Fascist movements and historic cinema. So for centuries the equestrian portrait has been an effective image of power, particularly military power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the visual culture of late nineteenth-century Japan through portrait photographs, paintings, and prints depicting Emperor Meiji (1852-1912), the country's first constitutional monarch. Four official portrait photographs, produced between 1872 and 1888, promoted his new image as the leader of Japan's modernisation and the divine descendent of the Sun Goddess. Photography embodied the accuracy of vision that was non-existent in Japanese art and was therefore considered perfect for giving authenticity to his dual image. The emperor's photographs also served as the model for numerous popular prints as well as official and unofficial portrait paintings. Thanks to these images, which broke the long-standing taboo about portraying the emperor, Meiji's likeness circulated to people of all walks of life. The last official portrait (1888) became known asgoshin'ei (venerable true shadow) and the quintessential icon of the sovereign. It was distributed to public schools to be worshipped by students on special occasions. Although it was a photographic reproduction of a conte crayon drawing, the state treated it as an authentic photograph and required schools to handle it as a sacred object. This series of portraits, which clearly etched the emperor's image in the Japanese mind, reveals the significant transformation of Japanese vision during the late nineteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the sources and number of states of the engraving entitled "The Progenie of the Most Renowned Prince James King of Great Britaine France and Ireland." This art is dated most likely in 1634 and its visual composition and the layout verses beneath it reinforce the intention evident in the title across the top of the engraving. The windows shown in the art bear the crests of England, Scotland, France and Ireland. The engraving has been attributed to artist Gerrit Mountin, however, a general design debt was noted to "Triumphus Jacobi," by Willem van de Passe.

Hariot Lady Dufferin (1843-1936) accompanied her husband to India during his Viceregency (1884-1888). While there she took up photography as a leisure activity in order to capture for posterity views of a country she greatly admired. This essay examines, from a post-colonial perspective, her private collection of photographs, encompassing landscapes, people, imperial acquisitions and more personal spaces. Using a Foucaultian argument, it considers how these photographs help to define the Vicereine's subject position, as an upper-class woman at the very centre of British rule in India, who was both surveyor and surveyed: she was privileged, yet, owing to the confines of gender, unable to express in written form any views on the affairs of state. Photography, however, offered her a useful visual language through which she could engage with the discourses of empire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the work of two photographers of Lucknow: Ahmad Ali Khan (active 1850s-1862) and Abbas Ali (active late 1860s-c.1880). Both photographers recorded the people and places of the city. Khan, closely connected to the Awadhi royal family, documented the architecture of the city before and after the 1857 Uprising. He also made portraits of members of the royal family and of residents of the European community in Lucknow. Abbas Ali published The Lucknow Album (1874), a volume of fifty architectural photographs. Ali's other photography concerned the taluqdars of Awadh and the nautch women of Lucknow. Situating the work of Khan and Ali within a complex history of cultural exchange, the author considers their photography as the visual representation of attitudes towards the contested spaces of the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses some reconsiderations in the identification of the design of the four large embroidered hangings with representations of Louis XIV and three of his children. It examines the connections of the designs of the central figures of the embroideries with other works of art, such as the representation of Louis XIV in Charles Le Brun's ceiling of the Galerie des Glaces at Versailles, France. The article also suggests that the embroideries were produced at the convent of St. Joseph in Paris after 1690.

The article focuses on the life and works of painter Diego Velázquez. He reached his local fame as a naturalistic painter of religious subjects, portraits and bodegones in Seville, Spain. He went out his native land in April 1622 to look a position in the court of Philip IV in Madrid, Spain. In August 1623, Velázquez was appointed as painter of the King Philip IV since the King was delighted with his portrait depicting the poet Luis de Góngora. The artwork of Velázquez includes Los Borrachos, a mythological depiction, which is interpreted as part of the palace ensemble on view to foreign dignitaries and other visitors.

The article focuses on the work of Helen Mackenzie using a camera obscura which depicts the portrait of a king and a queen in Delhi, India in January 1850. It is stated that the king in the portrait was the last Mughal Emperor, Bahadur Shah II. Accordingly, the location of the portrait was in a Dewan-i-Khas, a Mughal court. As portrayed, the queen wore a red Muslim dressed spotted with gold with two female servants holding peacock fans. The photograph of the above mentioned portrait is also presented.

The article reports on the survival of an engraved seventeenth-century portrait of King John of England, uncovered in an antique shop in Italy. The portrait is based on the engraved plates by artist Renold Elstrack, which first appeared in the 1618 edition by Compton Holland of the work "Baziliologia: A Booke of Kings." The plates were sold to printer Thomas Geele and twice printed, beginning in 1630.

The article discusses a mid-19th century print in the British Museum by the engraver James Stephenson and argues that the subject is not Sir James Willoughby Gordon as stated in the cataloging record but is Edward VII, then the Prince of Wales. The author also disputes the British Museum acquisitions record, which states that the print is after Sir James Willoughby Gordon, due to the fact that Gordon was not an artist and died before Edward VII could have posed for the print. The provenance of the print before its acquisition by the British Museum is also discussed.