Portraits

I've been thinking about portraits lately, for a few different reasons. At Christmas, I had my portrait done by the artist my mom works for, and it was a really cool experience. Then we started watching The Borgias on HBO, and in a couple of scenes it is mentioned that having one's portrait painted was in vogue, and we see the Pope's mistress sitting for a portrait, holding a lamb which will be transformed into a unicorn. I've also seen a couple of episodes of a Canadian show that airs on Bravo called Star Portraits, in which three portrait artists depict a celebrity, who then decides which piece is his or her favorite. It's a really interesting show, because you get to watch the artist work, and they talk about their process etc. And most recently, I read this article, which is about a controversial art authenticator who claims to have developed a new technique for detecting forgeries. He's asked to authenticate a portrait that is possibly by Da Vinci, and ultimately decides that it is, which makes the drawing worth millions of dollars.

All of this led me to look at lots of portraits online. These were just a few of my favorites: