Renaissance Faces. Van Eyck to Titian

This landmark exhibition explores the dramatic rise of portraiture in the Renaissance. It features works by the great masters of Northern and Southern Europe, including Raphael, Titian, Botticelli, Van Eyck, Holbein, Dürer, Lotto, Pontormo and Bellini.
Renaissance Faces provides a rare opportunity to explore Renaissance portraiture in exceptional depth, displaying over 70 paintings alongside important sculptures, drawings and medals.
During the Renaissance, portraits touched on every aspect of human life, from childhood to politics, friendship, courtship, marriage, old age and death.
This exhibition provides fresh insights into fundamental issues of likeness, memory and identity, while revealing a remarkable community of princes, envoys, merchants, clergymen, tradesmen and artists.
This title is published to accompany the major exhibition Renaissance Faces: Van Eyck to Titian at the National Gallery, London (15 October 2008 - 18 January 2009).This brand new scholarship focuses on the relation between Northern and Southern European painting.This comprehensive survey traces the development of portrait painting in Northern and Southern Europe during the Renaissance, when the genre first flourished. Both regions developed their own distinct styles and techniques but each was influenced by the other. Focusing on the relationship between artists of the north and south, renowned specialists analyse the notion of likeness - at that time based not only on accurate reference to posterity, but incorporating all aspects of human life, including propaganda, power, courtship, love, family, ambition and hierarchy. It features essays and individual catalogue entries that present new research on works by some of the greatest portraitists of the period, including Giovanni Bellini, Sandro Botticelli, Lucas Cranach, Albrecht Durer, Jan van Eyck, Hans Holbein and Titian, all magnificently illustrated.This beautiful book is rich in information about portrait types, styles, techniques and iconographies, the function of portraits, and the connections between painting, sculpture and portrait medals.