Quote:
Originally Posted by Breha
renaissance portraits are most often photographic quality, so they are indeed reliable in many cases: think of the portrait of Pero della francesca depicting the Duke of Urbino. The very same portrait shows an etruscan looking duke featuring the non nordic visage of a central italian farmer. See Immagine:Federico da Montefeltro.jpg - Wikipedia |
That is right portraits can be most usefull when they are well done and as long as you can confidently prove that is an authentical one.
That is a very current problem whith people whose names has entered into history such as Galileo or Leonardo ; they have been represented and over represented through ages and ages and hence you have lot of pictures of them for which most are innacurate in many cases
Moreover it is strange to notice that when nordicists write the history of Italy they never make mention of one of the most influencial families of the rennaissance; the Medici