Portraits and Philosophy Routledge Research in Aesthetics Series

Portraits are everywhere. One finds them not only in museums and galleries, but also in newspapers and magazines, in the homes of people and in the boardrooms of companies, on stamps and coins, on millions of cell phones and computers. Despite its huge popularity, however, portraiture hasn?t received much philosophical attention. While there are countless art historical studies of portraiture, contemporary philosophy has largely remained silent on the subject. This book aims to address that lacuna. It brings together philosophers (and philosophically minded historians) with different areas of expertise to discuss this enduring and continuously fascinating genre.

The chapters in this collection are ranged under five broad themes. Part I examines the general nature of portraiture and what makes it distinctive as a genre. Part II looks at some of the subgenres of portraiture, such as double portraiture, and at some special cases, such as sport card portraits and portraits of people not present. How emotions are expressed and evoked by portraits is the central focus of Part III, while Part IV explores the relation between portraiture, fiction, and depiction more generally. Finally, in Part V, some of the ethical issues surrounding portraiture are addressed. The book closes with an epilogue about portraits of philosophers.

Portraits and Philosophy tangles with deep questions about the nature and effects of portraiture in ways that will substantially advance the scholarly discussion of the genre. It will be of interest to scholars and students working in philosophy of art, history of art, and the visual arts.

Introduction: Portraits and Philosophy

Hans Maes

Part I. The Nature of Portraiture

1. Portraiture Portrayed

Ivan Gaskell

2. Portraiture and Portrait-Seeing: From Caravaggio to Digital Selfies

Alessandro Giovannelli

3. Portraits, Persons, and Poses

Paul Guyer

4. Philosophy of Portraiture: A Programmatic Overview

Matteo Ravasio

Part II. Subgenres and Special Cases

5. Double Portraiture

Eleen M. Deprez and Michael Newall

6. Moving Picture Portraits

Cynthia Freeland

7. Portraits of People Not Present

Bence Nanay

8. Portraits of the Landscape

Erich Hatala Matthes

9. Sport Card Portraiture

Jason Holt

Part III. Portraiture, Empathy, and Emotion

10. Truth and Empathy in the Portraits of Kokoschka

Jenefer Robinson

11. Without Shame? Lee Friedlander’s Late Self-Portraits

Diarmuid Costello

12. ‘And Time Will Have His Fancy…’: On Being Moved by Portraits of Unknown People

Hans Maes

Part IV. Portraiture, Fiction, and Depiction

13. Real Portraits in Literature

Stacie Friend

14. The Power of Picasso: Reconciling Realism and Anti-Realism in the Portrait of Gertrude Stein

Ira Newman

15. Portraiture: Seeing As and Seeing In

Martin Hammer

Part V. The Ethics of Portraiture

16. The Ethics of Portraiture

A.W. Eaton

17. The Sublime Clara Mather

Kenneth Walden

18. Respecting Photographic Subjects

Macalester Bell

Epilogue: Portraits of Philosophers

Hans Maes

Hans Maes is Senior Lecturer in History and Philosophy of Art at the University of Kent. He is the author of Conversations on Art and Aesthetics (2017) and editor of the essay collections Art and Pornography (2012) and Pornographic Art and the Aesthetics of Pornography (2013).