The Orchestrated Ego

Portraits since 1500

This catalogue takes us on a journey from the 15th to the 20th century, bringing to life the worlds of artists and their models.
In the artist’s studio, we get to know the clients in their various roles – as a late medieval benefactor, a Baroque royal suitor or a family man from the Early Romantic period.
The subject of the portrait as a picture of the soul then leads us to the medieval Vera Icon images of Christ as a replica of a hyperpersonalised divine essence, but also to idealised portraits of women from Cranach to Renoir and intimate family portraits by the artists, whose job is to confer immortality on the soul of the beloved person in their works.