REFLECTIONS ON PORTRAITURE: UNIFYING THE FACE AND PLURALIZING PERSONALITY
REFLECTIONS ON PORTRAITURE: UNIFYING THE FACE AND PLURALIZING PERSONALITY

Summary/Abstract: Two assumptions play an important role in the study of portraiture 1) Studies of theportrait are usually based on the idea that the face that is shown in the portrait is alsoa portrait in its own right, namely, a portrait of the soul of the portrayed person. 2) Themain function of portraiture is to portray or even capture the unique, personal identityof a person; that identity is an essential and stable entity.In this paper, both assumptions will be challenged. As a result, portrait and faceshould not be conflated and arguments on the face have a quite different status thanthose on portraits. Concerning the second assumption, surrealist portraits and con-temporary portraiture suggest the opposite of an essential personality that does notchange over time: when portraits are remade after some time, different personalitiespresent themselves. This does not mean that a unique personality or identity does notexist per se, but that portraiture cannot be used to make this claim.

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