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While the communicative nature of early modern Italian portraits becomes increasingly overt during the 15th and 16th centuries, the continued, and increasing, prevalence of the portrait medallion might at first seem to stand against the tide of period advances in creating portraits that engage with the viewer by looking out of the image. Although the portrait medallion, in its sculpted, metallic form, certainly creates a more physically-lasting work, the object's lack of a transitive, communicative sitter (as these sitters are nearly always in strict profile) might lead one to assume that the work is less capable of creating any such connection. Taking account of these things, this study challenges this assumption, examining the way that a portrait medallion, in its three-dimensionality, may actually provide a different, yet equally communicative, connection with the mind of a period viewer. Considering the Aristotelian belief that an image might be capable of 'impressing' itself in a viewer's memory – a belief re-examined in the late medieval and early modern periods – this article suggests that patrons of portrait medallions sought to make an impact on the beholder by way of the artwork's very form. Drawing from the belief that images impress themselves in the mind, as a seal impresses wax, this article adds to readings considering the appeal of portrait medallions in early modernity. By embodying a medium and genre of representation particularly equipped to produce memories, the portrait medallion could metaphorically 'stamp' itself on the beholder's mind, thereby working towards a primary goal of early modern portraiture – perpetually commemorating period sitters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the depiction of likeness and facsimile in medieval and early Renaissance Italian portraiture, including in Italian portrait sculpture and portrait painting. The portrayal of the Italian businessman Enrico Scrovegni in Italian portraits, including in the fresco "Dedication Scene: Enrico Scrovegni Offering His Chapel to the Virgin," by Giotto and the depiction of his face, is discussed.

This essay examines portraits of old women that were produced for the households of the professional and elite classes in Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy, and the Veneto during the second half of the sixteenth century, when, as a result of religious and social reform, women's lives came under increasing scrutiny. By interpreting the portraits within the context of prescriptive texts on the stages of women's lives, this study argues that the portraits provide evidence for the pivotal role of old women within the moral and symbolic order of the family, as well as in the wider community beyond the home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the connections between three Italian portraits from the nineteenth century. Each is examined for the visual interaction of identifiable narratives, traced back to Lord Byron and his Siege of Corinth, and portrait likeness. The first two examples—Francesco Hayez's 1832 Portrait of Carlo Prayer as Alp and a closely related engraving by Carolina Zucchi—construct associations between literary Byronic narrative and a contemporary nationalist martyr. Giacomo Trécourt's Self-portrait from 1842-1850 neglects the narrative association of the previous two, but retains a Romantic liberalism in theme and style to convey his break from traditional, neo-classical artistic culture. As the series progresses from 1832 to the mid-1840s, the concept of portraiture expands through shifting identities to comprise a highly allusive and complex treatment of the genre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Portraits of cities and of human beings shared a nomenclature and developed along parallel courses in the Renaissance. This article traces their common history, examining evolving notions of likeness and approaches to the visual fashioning of identity across both categories of imagery, then considers one urban subject, Rome, that embodied all the challenges of the genre. In representations of the Eternal City such as those by Leonardo Bufalini and Mario Cartaro, artists sought to convey the appearance of Rome in their own time along with that of its glorious past, and to balance what they could see with an imagined, timeless ideal. In this way, images of Rome offer new insight into early modern portraiture and representation in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Around 1525, Titian (Tiziano Vecellio, ca. 1488–1576) painted the likeness of Alfonso I d'Este of Ferrara (1475–1534). The duke, attired in stunning furs, brocades, and jewels rests his arm on one of his famous cannons. The portrait so enchanted Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (1500–1558) that he requested it as a gift, and a slightly different replacement image was commissioned. This article examines the genesis and significance of these little-studied court portraits, in which the twin personae of the condottiere and magnificent diplomat-prince were cleverly conflated. Alfonso had survived two decades of almost constant threats to his state, and the portraits celebrate his resiliency. This study also considers Titian's portrait of the duke's plebeian mistress, Laura Dianti (ca. 1500–1573), whose image visually complements that of her noble lover in an unprecedented manner. I argue that Laura's image functioned to extend the ducal identity to express his passion for beautiful painting and his engagement with contemporary art theory. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the educational value of Italian portraits made by master-colorist Titian. It is said that when colored copies of his works are seen, there is detraction from the strength of the sentiment the portrait should illustrate and Titian's skill as an artist is not appreciated. In education, teachers are advised to show their pupils to show a colored and neutral tones of his works. In telling the story of the portrait and while pupils are looking at the portraits, teachers can determine which portrait enhances the students eye, mind and spirit.

The article clarifies the significance of the iconography of a portrait medal given to Italian painter Lavinia Fontana who was born in 1552 in Bologna, Italy. Accordingly, the medal which was executed by Felice Antonio Casoni measured 67 millimeters with an inscription depicting the name of Fontana and her signiture. In addition, the medal contains unusual features such as the band covering the woman's mouth and the wild arrangement of the hair which coincide with those set down for the allegorical image of painting.

Based on content analysis (in the context of the historical, socio-cultural and political situation, etc.) of texts published during the "stagnant" period of the Soviet Screen magazine (1969--1985), the authors came to the conclusion that the principle of choosing cinematic personalities to paint portraits of Western actors and directors in 1969-1985 remained stable in the Soviet Screen. This magazine readily wrote about "progressive filmmakers" who went unnoticed in negative statements against the USSR and participation in anti-Soviet films. Especially if these filmmakers came to the Moscow International Festival and spoke positively about the Soviet Union. One of the favorite subjects of the Soviet Screen within the framework of foreign themes is Western actors as "victims of Hollywood", evidence of the "tragedy of the artist in the bourgeois world." But if any of the famous Western actors was involved in the creation of anti-Soviet films and/or films "glorifying the American military," the magazine could strike him with "heavy artillery" on its pages. However, there were many less politicized articles about Western actors on the pages of the magazine. As for interviews with Western filmmakers, as in previous years, the Soviet Screen magazine selected interlocutors from among the most "progressive artists." For example, among American filmmakers, the first place was given to Stanley Kramer. The progressive political position was also emphasized in interviews with Sydney Pollack, Norman Jewison, Ellen Burstyn, Jessica Lange and other Western directors and actors. In general, during the period 1969-1985, the ideological positions of the Soviet Screen magazine remained unchanged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on content analysis (in the context of the historical, socio-cultural and political situation, etc.) of texts published during the “stagnant” period of the Soviet Screen magazine (1969–1985), the authors came to the following conclusions. Of the wide range of Hollywood and British films, Soviet film distribution in the period we analyzed included mainly films with an acute social message, critically showing Western realities. Therefore, it is not at all surprising that these films received maximum support in the Soviet Screen; articles by Soviet film critics emphasized the “progressive anti-bourgeois significance” of these films. It is very significant that, even when reviewing American films, which seemed to be completely far from politics, the reviewers of Soviet Screen demonstrated ideological approaches. Of course, among the reviews of American and British films in Soviet Screen, there also appeared texts that were devoid of a direct appeal to politics. “Apoliticalism” was especially evident in reviews devoted to film adaptations of classical works, which often took place in the 19th century and earlier. Frankly entertaining Hollywood and British films were released into Soviet distribution in the 1970s and the first half of the 1980s quite rarely. And here, Soviet Screen reviewers often sought to distance themselves from edifying political and ideological assessments, concentrating on a professional analysis of the artistic quality of this or that entertaining film. In Italian and French cinema, the Soviet Screen consistently gave preference to political films that “expose capitalist reality.” Of course, Soviet Screen, as before, could not ignore the works of Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti, Michelangelo Antonioni, Francois Truffaut and other outstanding masters of cinema. But here, too, the magazine’s reviewers assessed their work mainly within the framework of Marxist ideological principles, on the basis of which even the films of such recognized masters as Federico Fellini were criticized. The sharp rejection of Soviet Screen reviewers was often caused by entertainment films with the participation of Jean-Paul Belmondo, which were reproached for promoting “supermanhood” and violence. The Soviet Screen's reviews of famous French and Italian comedies were more benevolent, but overall rather skeptical. Of course, the range of Western films, for one reason or another, did not reach the Soviet mass audience, was much wider than film distribution. And year after year, the editors of the magazine selected examples for criticism of bourgeois society and imperialism: films of an anti-communist and anti-Soviet orientation, as well as films “glorifying the American military” and “whitewashing the Nazis.” The openly entertaining part of Western film production has traditionally been viewed by the magazine mainly in a sharply negative light. Soviet Screen did not ignore the topic of film sex, popular in the West in the 1970s. Of course, articles were published about films of this kind, condemning the “decomposition of the morals of bourgeois society.” In articles in Soviet Screen about international film festivals and the current repertoire of Western national cinemas and weeks of foreign cinema in the USSR, there was also a clear division of Western cinema into “progressive” and “bourgeois”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the connection between the double-portrait relief of artist Tullio Lombardo in the Ca' d'Oro, Venice and a woodcut illustration for the book 'Hypnerotomachia Poliphili,' by Francesco Colonna. Link of the relief to North Italian portraits; Opinion on the purpose of the relief; Discussion on the possibility that the subject of the relief is Lombardo.

Based on content analysis (in the context of the historical, socio-cultural and political situation, etc.) of texts published during the "stagnant" period of the Soviet Screen magazine (1969-1985), the authors came to the following conclusions. Of the wide range of Hollywood and British films, Soviet film distribution in the period we analyzed included mainly films with an acute social message, critically showing Western realities. Therefore, it is not at all surprising that these films received maximum support in the Soviet Screen; articles by Soviet film critics emphasized the "progressive anti-bourgeois significance" of these films. It is very significant that, even when reviewing American films, which seemed to be completely far from politics, the reviewers of Soviet Screen demonstrated ideological approaches. Of course, among the reviews of American and British films in Soviet Screen, there also appeared texts that were devoid of a direct appeal to politics. "Apoliticalism" was especially evident in reviews devoted to film adaptations of classical works, which often took place in the 19th century and earlier. Frankly entertaining Hollywood and British films were released into Soviet distribution in the 1970s and the first half of the 1980s quite rarely. And here, Soviet Screen reviewers often sought to distance themselves from edifying political and ideological assessments, concentrating on a professional analysis of the artistic quality of this or that entertaining film. In Italian and French cinema, the Soviet Screen consistently gave preference to political films that "expose capitalist reality." Of course, Soviet Screen, as before, could not ignore the works of Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti, Michelangelo Antonioni, Francois Truffaut and other outstanding masters of cinema. But here, too, the magazine's reviewers assessed their work mainly within the framework of Marxist ideological principles, on the basis of which even the films of such recognized masters as Federico Fellini were criticized. The sharp rejection of Soviet Screen reviewers was often caused by entertainment films with the participation of Jean-Paul Belmondo, which were reproached for promoting "supermanhood" and violence. The Soviet Screen's reviews of famous French and Italian comedies were more benevolent, but overall rather skeptical. Of course, the range of Western films, for one reason or another, did not reach the Soviet mass audience, was much wider than film distribution. And year after year, the editors of the magazine selected examples for criticism of bourgeois society and imperialism: films of an anti-communist and anti-Soviet orientation, as well as films "glorifying the American military" and "whitewashing the Nazis". The openly entertaining part of Western film production has traditionally been viewed by the magazine mainly in a sharply negative light. Soviet Screen did not ignore the topic of film sex, popular in the West in the 1970s. Of course, articles were published about films of this kind, condemning the "decomposition of the morals of bourgeois society." In articles in Soviet Screen about international film festivals and the current repertoire of Western national cinemas and weeks of foreign cinema in the USSR, there was also a clear division of Western cinema into "progressive" and "bourgeois". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Metropolitan Museum's Portrait of a Man in Armour with Two Pages, painted a sixteenth-century portrait by the Venetian artist Paris Bordone, has been of great interest to art and cultural historians studying the depiction of Black subjects in early modern portrait art, because it is the earliest known work to depict a Black page attending a White male subject. It influenced the development of a distinct European portrait type in which aristocratic white sitters were represented with enslaved Black attendants in which their unequal power relations underscored by the rigid hierarchies of their proximities. Lugo-Ortiz and Rosenthal observe that the result of this motif is 'the paradoxical presence and erasure of the enslaved subject in portraiture' as material subjects that are seen but not acknowledged. Such a voluntary 'erasure' of what is clearly present also applies to the ways we have read archival documents about enslaved people from the point of view of the colonizer. Here, I re-read both the painting and the documents to restore the identities of both the main soldier subject and his Black slave, Francisco of Ethiopia, by drawing attention to our encoded methods of reading racialized subjects in the gallery and in the archive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the signing of the so-called Ciano-Stojadinović Pact (March 1937), Italian-Yugoslav relations suddenly improved. The turnaround in bilateral relations between the two countries (destined, however, to remain ephemeral) was clearly visible in the field of cultural relations. This essay aims to show how, after 1937, the Italian authorities tried to promote Italian culture and language in a big style in the capital of the Kingdom, Belgrade, in an attempt to counteract the supremacy enjoyed up to then by the cultural action of other countries such as France, Germany, etc., in order to promote the Italian language and culture. The fascination with the Italian civilization was also meant to contribute to bringing Yugoslavia politically and ideologically closer to the Fascist regime. Despite the invested resources and the success of some major events (for example, the great exhibition of Italian portraits through the centuries) the results were disappointing, showing once again the structural limits of Fascist political and cultural action abroad.

Through her calculated self-fashioning of images that portrayed her as well-educated, cultured, and powerful, Isabella d'Este used portraiture to gain access to the typically male-exclusive spheres of the fifteenth-century Northern Italian court. Through an iconographic examination, this paper inspects the portrait drawing of Isabella done by Leonardo da Vinci, comparing this image with those of her created by Gian Cristoforo Romano, Francesco Francia, and Titan. While previous scholarship surrounding Isabella d'Este's art patronage discusses her use of portraiture to uniquely elevate her political and social status, this research works to uncover her intentional display of specifically masculine elements of portraiture, combined with representations of her feminine beauty, to assert her authority as a female ruler. This examination of her involvement in the development of these portraits, building on the scholarship surrounding her correspondence with court artists, reveals Isabella's own awareness of the important effect these representations had on her status at court. A discussion of her dissemination of these images as gifts to members of her own court at Mantua and other Italian courts proves her use of these portraits to propagate an image of herself that enabled her to achieve greater power and influence. This paper reveals the ways in which Isabella used Italian Renaissance portraiture to intentionally fashion images of herself that both flattered her physical appearance as a woman and represented qualities of her personal character and status as a ruler, portraying her as a virtuous, culturally superior, and powerful leader. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information regarding the attribution of two Italian portraits of Antonio Serristori to Niccòlo Lapi, a Florentine painter from the seventeenth century who has not been considered by art experts as a portraitist. Serristori served as a Senator of Florence in Italy as well as Governor of Leghorn. The artistic masterpieces are entitled "Portrait of Antonio Serristori", and "Portrait of a Knight of St Stephen". The portraits were originally attributed to Alessandro Gherardini. The Serristori family archives and hospital records provide evidence that Lapi painted these portraits.

This essay makes a case for the historical importance and cultural and psychic complexity of Jean‐Auguste‐Dominique Ingres's representations of men, which have tended to be neglected in favour of the painter's much more celebrated and more thoroughly scrutinized representations of women. It focuses on an unfinished portrait of the artist's oldest and dearest friend, Jean‐Pierre‐François Gilibert. I argue that Ingres foregrounded the physical allure and fashionability of his friend in this portrait, thereby overtly specularizing and covertly eroticizing him. The portrait is read as an artefact of an early 'romantic' phase of the two men's friendship, one that had to be disavowed in order for them to achieve heterosexual adulthood in accordance with the period's growing dichotomization of homosocial and homoerotic bonds between men. I trace the processes through which Ingres initially disavowed Gilibert – and ultimately, retrospectively re‐embraced him – via the complex role that the latter's portrait played in the decades‐long evolutionary saga of its erstwhile pendant, Ingres's celebrated Self‐Portrait at the Age of Twenty‐Four. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies have found a tendency for heads in portraits to be oriented so that more of the left side than the right side of the face is visible, though it is stronger in female than in male portraits. Two studies are reported that set head orientation in the context of body and gaze orientation, and additionally look at effects of artistic medium (paintings, photographs, and drawings) and changes in the tendency over time. There was a strong congruency between body, head, and gaze orientation. In particular, body and head had the same orientation in more than three-quarters of the portraits in both samples. Gender differences were found only for paintings and only in Study 1. There were several strong effects of artistic medium; for example, frontal orientation of gaze was much less common in drawings than in paintings and photographs. There were also several changes over time; for example, frontal orientation of body and head tended to increase going into the twentieth century. The results show that body, head, and gaze direction need to be considered together, and hypotheses concerned only with head orientation cannot provide a complete explanation for posing orientation. Four possible approaches to explanations are briefly discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article questions whether there were Italian portraits in the art gallery at the Château d'Amboise in Amboise, France, during the reign of French King Louis XII and his wife French Queen Anne de Bretagne during the 1500s. The author analyzes an article by Jean Adhémar titled "Une galerie de portraits italiens à Amboise en 1500." Topics include various portraits such as the "que l'on dit estres du seigneur Ludovic," which, according to the author, could be identified as the Duke of Milan Ludovic Sforza, "Philippus Maria" and "homme à la toison d'or," which represents Emperor Maximilien Ier. Also discussed is the interpretation proposed by Adhémar, which states that Louis XII brought the portraits back after plundering the castles in Milan, Italy.