The National Gallery’s new show of Renaissance portraits contains some strikingly modern faces.
The portraits brought together for Renaissance Faces are in one sense a window on the past, revealing sitters from half a millennium ago who range from courtier to commoner. Yet, far from appearing as if they come from an entirely different world, if you look closely, some of these people seem incredibly familiar.
Many of the pictures bear striking resemblance to some of the contemporary celebrities who adorn our newspapers, suggesting that, in 500 years, certain facial types have changed very little. The paintings are drawn from both northern and southern European countries, and were produced by a wide range of artists, including Van Eyck, Hol-bein, Dürer, Raphael, Titian and Bellini. Selections from the National Gallery’s rich collection are combined in the show with important loans. Portraiture is still one of the most popular forms of art, and playing “spot the likeness” makes it all the more entertaining.
Scarlett Johansson/ Portrait of a Lady
The Hollywood actress’s features are mirrored in Maerten van Heemskerck’s Portrait of a Lady with Spindle and Distaff (1529-31). As with many portraits, the picture gives clues to the unknown sitter’s status. Her dress is expensive, suggesting that she is a member of the nobility, and the activity of spinning indicates wifely virtue. So, she’s rich and socially upstanding - a good role model for Scarlett the starlet?
Vladimir Putin/Giovanni Arnolfini
One of the National’s most famous paintings, Jan van Eyck’s Arnolfini and His Wife (1434) - once known as the Arnolfini Wedding - contains a striking lookalike of the Russian leader, though it is thought to depict a family from Lucca, at the time resident in Bruges. This full-length double portrait is a very early example of such a picture in a domestic setting. It is particularly noted for including a mirror that reflects two men, one of them thought to be van Eyck himself...
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Many of the pictures bear striking resemblance to some of the contemporary celebrities who adorn our newspapers, suggesting that, in 500 years, certain facial types have changed very little. The paintings are drawn from both northern and southern European countries, and were produced by a wide range of artists, including Van Eyck, Hol-bein, Dürer, Raphael, Titian and Bellini. Selections from the National Gallery’s rich collection are combined in the show with important loans. Portraiture is still one of the most popular forms of art, and playing “spot the likeness” makes it all the more entertaining.
Scarlett Johansson/ Portrait of a Lady
The Hollywood actress’s features are mirrored in Maerten van Heemskerck’s Portrait of a Lady with Spindle and Distaff (1529-31). As with many portraits, the picture gives clues to the unknown sitter’s status. Her dress is expensive, suggesting that she is a member of the nobility, and the activity of spinning indicates wifely virtue. So, she’s rich and socially upstanding - a good role model for Scarlett the starlet?
Vladimir Putin/Giovanni Arnolfini
One of the National’s most famous paintings, Jan van Eyck’s Arnolfini and His Wife (1434) - once known as the Arnolfini Wedding - contains a striking lookalike of the Russian leader, though it is thought to depict a family from Lucca, at the time resident in Bruges. This full-length double portrait is a very early example of such a picture in a domestic setting. It is particularly noted for including a mirror that reflects two men, one of them thought to be van Eyck himself...