The portrait genre in painting is one of the most fruitful. The image of a man, the most subtle and inspired reproduction of his features on a canvas touched people of different classes and affluence. These images were half-length and full-length, in the landscape and in the interior. The greatest artists sought to capture not only individual features, but also to convey the mood, the inner world of their model.
Court genre
Portraits are genre, allegorical, etc. And what is a ceremonial portrait? He is a kind of historical. This genre appeared at the court during the rule of the monarchs. The meaning and purpose of the authors of the parade portrait was not just the ability to accurately convey personality traits, but to write so as to glorify, exalt the person. Masters of this genre were almost always widely known, and their work was generously paid by customers, because usually ceremonial portraits were ordered by noble persons - kings and their senior associates. And if the painter identified the monarch himself with the deity, he likened his dignitaries to the reigning person.
Distinctive features
A magnificent figure in all the splendor of regalia and symbols of power, placed in a magnificent landscape, against the background of harmonious examples of architecture or in a magnificent interior - this is what a ceremonial portrait is. The social status of the hero of the canvas is highlighted. Such works were created in order to capture a person as a historical person. Often a person appears in the image in a somewhat elaborate, theatrical pose, designed to emphasize its importance. The mental structure and inner life were not the subject of the image. Here on the faces of aristocrats we will not see anything but a frozen solemnly majestic expression.
Era and style
What is a ceremonial portrait in terms of style of the era? This is an attempt to “historicize” reality in the faces of significant figures, fitting them into a time-consuming environment and setting. Elegant and pompous was the general flavor of such paintings in the Baroque era, it turned out to be decorative and refined during the Rococo times, acquired solemn restraint and clarity under classicism.
Varieties of dress portrait
The ceremonial portrait in painting can be divided into several types: coronation, in the image of a commander, equestrian, hunting, semi-parade.
The most important, from an ideological point of view, was the coronation portrait, in which the artist captured the emperor on the day of accession to the throne. Here were all the attributes of power - the crown, mantle, power and scepter. More often the monarch was depicted in full growth, sometimes - sitting on the throne. The background of the portrait was heavy drapery, reminiscent of the theater’s backstage, designed to open the world to something beyond the ordinary, and columns symbolizing the inviolability of the monarchy’s power.
As such, we see Catherine the Great in the portrait of Fyodor Rokotov, created in 1770. In the same genre, a portrait of Jean Auguste Ingres “Napoleon on the Throne” (1804) is painted.
Often, a ceremonial portrait of the 18th century represented a royal face in the image of a military man. In the portrait of Paul the First, created by Stepan Schukin in 1797, the monarch is depicted in the form of a colonel of the Preobrazhensky regiment.
A portrait in a military uniform with awards indicated a certain status of the person embodied on the canvas. Usually such masterpieces captured the glorious commanders after significant victories. History knows numerous images of Alexander Suvorov, Mikhail Kutuzov, Fedor Ushakov.
The canvases of European masters eloquently demonstrate what a ceremonial portrait of a ruler on a horse is. One of the most famous is the canvas of Titian, on which the greatest Italian painter of the Renaissance painted in 1548 Charles V riding a stately stallion. The Austrian court painter Georg Prenner painted an equestrian portrait of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna with a retinue (1750-1755). The impetuous grace of magnificent horses represents the bold and ambitious designs of the queen.
The hunting portrait, in which the aristocrat was most often depicted in the company of hounds of dogs or with game in a proudly raised hand, could symbolize masculinity, dexterity and strength of a nobleman.
The semi-parade portrait met all the basic requirements, but represented the person in the belt version, and not in full height.
Interest in this genre exists to this day.