Portraiture, the art of capturing a person's likeness, traces its origins back to very early civilizations. While pinpointing the single first portrait is challenging, some of the earliest significant expressions of this art form emerged in ancient cultures.
Earliest Forms of Portraiture
According to historical insights, some of the earliest expressions of portraiture include ancient Egyptian tonal portraits, painted on the lids of mummy cases, and the life-size sculptural busts or death masks made in ancient Rome. These diverse early forms highlight the foundational role of portraiture in these societies.
- Ancient Egyptian Portraits: Painted onto mummy cases, these portraits served a crucial role in identifying the deceased in the afterlife.
- Ancient Roman Busts and Masks: Sculptural busts and death masks created in Rome aimed to preserve the image of prominent individuals for posterity.
Core Ideas Behind Early Portraits
Despite the differences in medium and culture, both the Egyptian and Roman examples share a common purpose that remains central to portraiture today. As noted, these examples describe an enduring set of ideas central to the genre:
- To memorialise a subject: Early portraits were often created to remember and honor individuals, particularly after death.
- To capture a likeness: A fundamental goal was to accurately represent the physical appearance of the person being depicted.
These initial purposes — memorialization and likeness — demonstrate that from its earliest stages, portraiture was deeply connected to identity, memory, and representation.
