Fine art portraiture can be divided into three categories: media, subject, and historical era. There are other, more modern ways to define fine art portraiture, such as environmental portraits, which can be classified based on how the subject and surroundings are treated. Art is a field that is constantly changing, allowing for new developments and innovations to emerge as quickly as artists can explore and express them. New interpretations of fine art portraiture and how it captures the living subject emerge as a result of this constant change.
Modern photographic portraits of celebrities, members of royalty, infants, and newlywed couples, for example, are one type of fine art portraiture that can be classified according to the medium used to create it. Oil paint has traditionally been used to create fine art portraits because it is easier to manipulate and dries slowly enough that an artist has more time to work on a specific effect. Portraits could even be sculpted in marble or wood, capturing active life in a non-living, immobile medium, as in the sculpture of a warrior on a rearing horse.
The human subject, in all of its possible poses and depictions, is the most popular subject of fine art portraiture. Portraiture subjects were almost always royalty or nobility in ancient times. Ordinary people in their natural surroundings have become more common in recent years. Some fine artists have broadened the definition of portraiture specializing in photographic or painted portraits of pets, allowing animal lovers to have representations of their beloved dogs, cats, horses, and other pets.
One of the goals of fine art portraiture is to commemorate a significant event in the subject’s life. Portraits of pregnant mothers, children on their birthdays, or couples engaged to be married may be commissioned from photographers or painters. Portraits of departed loved ones in their caskets, surrounded flowers, are a long-standing tradition in some European cultures.
Portrait subjects can be shown in a variety of positions. Images of royalty and nobility were frequently preserved in bust sculptures of the head and shoulders in ancient civilizations. Full-length portraits of nobles were frequently commissioned the subjects themselves during the Renaissance. The person in the portrait was frequently in charge of these depictions in order to convey an air of authority or power. Some of them even had the artist alter details to make them appear more attractive minimizing unattractive facial features. Miniature profiles of loved ones were popular ways to capture portraits of loved ones during the Victorian era, and they remained so until the widespread use of photography.
Modern interpretations of fine art portraiture have given artists more leeway in manipulating lighting, poses, and surroundings to better express the subject’s personality. The subject of an environmental portrait is placed in settings that make a statement about and describe the person’s identity. In many cases, the environment is as important as or more important than the subject of the portrait. Portrait artist Arnold Newman’s depiction of artist Man Ray in front of one of Ray’s paintings or pianist Igor Stravinsky with his piano are two examples of this.