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The telling detail of Renaissance life ignites a renewed sense of the power of portraiture, says Richard Dorment Whenever the words “Renaissance” and “portrait” appear in the same sentence, art historians instinctively reach for the nearest generalisation. By now we’ve heard them all, from the contrasts they make so much of – between art in Northern Europe and Italy, oil painting and tempera, and Protestant and Catholic – to those old standbys, the rise of the middle class and the development of the individual conscience. Among the many strengths of the National Gallery’s Renaissance Faces: Van Eyck to Titian is that it deals with the specific, the here and now, the telling detail. The sweeping statements about Renaissance art that sent me to sleep in college are nowhere to be found. Instead, this is a show about people. It... [read full story]
