Portrait prints and codes of identity in the Renaissance: Hendrik Goltzius, Justus Lipsius, and Michel de Montaigne

Abstract

A portrait is just a portrait, or so it often seems. By its very nature a portrait makes a tacit claim to being simply what it is, as if one must somehow forego certain of the usual questions one is inclined to ask of any representation. Whether or not we conclude that the sitter actually sat for the occasion, once the figure is identified the main question has been answered. From there we turn to description and speculation. Yet in the much discussed category of mimetic art, portraits present a vexing sequence of problems for the interpreter. In the Renaissance the imaged portrait was but one manifestation of an emerging interest in private disclosure within the public sphere. Take, for example, the concurrent rise in the importance of biographies and personal testimonials such as the dedicatory preface and the epigram. Then there was the concertedly self-conscious cultivation of the letter, not just as a means of private exchange but as a mode of public discourse and an opportunity for self-advertisement. However, the most compelling of all Renaissance genres of self-representation is the personal essay.