What is a Portrait?

A portrait is a painting or picture that depicts a person's face through visuals and color. A portrait captures a person's characteristics and mood at a certain time.

In the Self-Portrait of Chuck Close, Chuck Close uses a grid to paint his face. Each tiny section is made up of little images using a variety of colors and geometric and organic shapes. This is called minimalism. Chuck Close uses a lot of warm vibrant colors in his face and uses dark cool colors for the background. The black turtleneck fades into the background; this draws the focus to his face. He also uses techniques such as photo realism and pointillism.

Photo realism is when a lot of detail and normal everyday items are used to make an image look like a photo. Pointillism is a style using tiny dots of color to produce a cohesive painting.

These techniques give the portrait a pixel photo feel. This painting shows Chuck Close is a very meticulous and successful painter.

The person painted in the Librarian by Giuseppe Arcimboldo really loves books and probably loves to read. The open book used for the hair could mean the person has an open mind.

Giuseppe Arcimboldo really arranges the books well to compose the nose, cheek, and lips of the face.

In the painting Diego on My Mind, Frida Kahlo has an image of Diego Rivera above her eyebrows to show she is always thinking about him. Diego Rivera was married to Kahlo, but they had a rocky, unsteady marriage. They had their ups and downs. tears fall down Kahlo's face to show how worried she was over Diego whether they were together or not. Kahlo also uses warm colors to bring out the features of her face and Diego's.

Although all these artists answer the concept of portrait, they do not convey the concept in the tradtional way. Close, Arcimboldo, and Kahlo reinvent the idea of portrait through different styles, shapes, and forms. They use images and symbols to make a unified portrait of a person.