Document Type
Essay
Award Designation
First place
Publication Date
2024
Abstract
BreyAhh, portraiture: the Facebook, Instagram, and Tinder profiles of 1635. Portraiture has historically been one of the most powerful means for constructing and performing identity, whether viewers of portraits realize this or not. Rarely are portraits objective representations of their sitters. Instead, they are constructs, carefully crafted narratives about people’s identities that the people in the portraits want us, the viewers, to believe. Do they want to show us their authentic selves, though? Returning to the social media example—has anyone ever swiped right on a hot guy and discovered too late that he looks like a tortoise in real life? Similarly with portraiture, the showing of authentic selves has not historically been among the sitter’s highest concerns. The German baroque painting Portrait of a Daughter of Dietrich Bromsen by Michael Conrad Hirt from circa 1635 embodies these tensions well.
Disciplines
Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies | Women's Studies
eCommons Citation
Brey, Victoria, "Communicative Capacities of German Marriage Portraits: Portrait of a Daughter of Dietrich Bromsen" (2024). Joyce Durham Essay Contest in Women's and Gender Studies. 25.
https://ecommons.udayton.edu/wgs_essay/25
Comments
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