“Portrait in the Portrait” Motive and Family Representation in the Russian Painting of the Second Half of the 18th and Early 19th Centuries
Keywords:
Portrait in the portrait, 18th century Russian painting, 18th century Russian culture, family portrait, family representation, group portrait, miniature, sculptural portraitAbstract
The article analyses the method of insertion of “a portrait in the portrait” in painting of the second half of the 18th and early 19th cc. in Russia and its infl uence on the family representation in portrait painting of that time. The ways of inserting the “absent” fi gure in the portrait are various: they are the insertion of a painting, a miniature and sculptural portraits. The analysis shows that the insertion of “a portrait in the portrait” plays a signifi cant role in portrayal of the family values in a portrait. This method makes the composition of the paintings more sophisticated and facilitates displaying social, psychological and spiritual aspects of the family representation in portraiture. Moreover, this method multiplies the typological diversity of family portraits. Thus, a single portrait acquires the features of the double portrait and the double portrait in its turn comes close to the family group portrait. The insertion of the additional image in the group portrait fosters the development of the family tree subject-matter.
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