Face to Face, or the Art of the Portrait: the exhibition : Ressource du site Face à face, l'art du portrait

The portrait is of a very old kind. The human representation is deeply rooted in western culture. From the end of the Middle Ages, and then during the Renaissance, it played a major role, in concordance with the interest shown towards the human person and to the particular individual. Very soon after its invention, photography concentrated on portraits, going as far as to take over certain functions that were provided by painting and graphic arts. More than one hundred and fifty years afterwards, faith in the truth of the photographic image has been lost. With the portrait, artists are forever testing the limits of the representation