Portraits and Self-Portraits Series: From Power to Knowledge

Event Description

An online art history lecture by Gilles Genty

The portrait as a mirror of its era: how small iconographic details reveal the shift from one society to the next. Under the Ancien Régime, royal portraits showcased the attributes of power — crown, sword, sceptre, and so on. The Enlightenment brought a new ideal: knowledge itself. Painters turned their attention to philosophers and scientists, crafting a new kind of portrait — one filled with books and scientific instruments.

This lecture is part of the series Portraits and Self-Portraits: From Jacques-Louis David to Andy Warhol (1770–1970). This series explores the art of portraiture through the evolution of artistic media and approaches to representation, from painting to photography, while examining the changing relationship between artist and subject across time.

Presented in French

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