What are portraits?
According to Wikipedia, a portrait is an artistic representation of a person. Today, we see portraits everywhere! From Tumblr, to Facebook, to Instagram. Even if the media had changed and even if the younger generation had begun to call them "selfies," in the end of the day it is still a portrait. Back in the old days, portraits did exist. However they weren't formed using a camera but rather with paints on different surfaces.
Portraits exist in different cultures. The one most people are familiar with are the portraits form the West, which are usually incredibly detailed. However, in order to fully understand their differences, we must first look at the the differences of their paintings. Then we will look at the differences of the portrait paintings/illustrations from each culture. |