Tag: Portraits

Power Portraits of Tudor Monarchs

The Tudor monarchs, via their art, are on a year-long royal progress of the United States with the exhibition “The Tudors: Art and Majesty in Renaissance England,” currently on view at the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) until May 14, 2023. This show debuted at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and will travel later this…


Luxury and Devotion: Hans Memling’s Portinari Portraits

From a pitch dark background emerge the faces of a man and a woman, facing each other with hands folded in prayer. Their countenances appear austere, their clothing plain and simple. In fact, if it weren’t for the lady’s luxuriously jeweled necklace, the otherwise monochromatic painting might just escape our attention, lost amidst the multifarious…


Records Show Trudeau Is Routinely Offered Portraits of Himself as Gifts

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been offered the gift of his own likeness some 17 times since becoming prime minister, including once by the president of China. The portraits and photos, along with a myriad of vases, wine bottles and Star Wars paraphernalia, are among the more than 400 gifts valued at over $200 that…


Presidential Portraits: An American Tradition of Recording Our Nation’s Leaders by Brushstroke

The tradition of presidential portraits is as old as the office of the American presidency itself. Beginning with Gilbert Stuart’s 1796 portrait of George Washington, every president has been the subject of an official portrait. An oil painting on canvas is most frequently commissioned, but the advent of photography has opened up new portrait possibilities…


Reflecting on Life’s Hopes and Dreams Through Renaissance Portraits

Remember me when I am gone away, Gone far away into the silent land; —Christina Rossetti, poet, from “Remember” “Remember Me,” a fascinating exhibition at Amsterdam’s Rijks Museum explores how over 100 Renaissance men and women were memorialized in paint. Through the portraits, we can see what our Renaissance cousins once held dear: their hopes,…