Portrait/Human Figure

The attitude towards the depiction of the human figure has changed throughout history, and the portrait, in addition to achieving a certain degree of similarity, has had different roles, and the emphasis has been placed on various aspects. He could depict a certain person as the embodiment of power (Egyptian pharaohs), emphasize his representative role (Van Eyck's Chancellor Rolin as the patron saint of the church), covertly criticize (Goya: Charles IV and his family), idealize personal traits (Joshua Reynolds), emphasize the meticulous details of clothing and scenery, which also carries a symbolic meaning (Hans Holbein), capture the moment in which a human character or condition is distinctly revealed (Frans Hals), express the relationship between the artist and the portrayed (Gericault), depict a person in an everyday or family environment (Degas, Renoir) and highlight many other aspects of someone's personality.

In modern times, some portraits have marked entire artistic periods, such as in Croatian art by Bukovčev or in Austria by Klimt. Some of them are significant milestones in the history of art (Tartaglia's self-portrait), because they not only bring novelty to the subject as such, but also explore and change the visual language itself (the portrait of Mrs. Matisse or Picasso's portraits).

Along with the nude, the portrait is certainly the theme most associated with art education, so publications that provide an overview of portraits throughout history are represented in greater numbers in the library collection. The oldest is the exhibition catalogue from 1938.

However, the emphasis is on contemporary portraiture, which shows an exceptional richness of statements and approaches, and is not limited to achieving similarities and depicting personality, but often raises broader questions about identity, social status and role, the possibilities of communication and familiarity, personal life markers, the relationship between the contemporary and tradition in art, the role of social icons, cultural heritages and determinations, and many others.

As a close but separate group of publications, we can single out those dealing with the human figure in painting, where it can also have portrait features or overlap with the theme of the nude, but it is characteristic that it generally expresses basic existential questions, i.e. brings some form of introspection or exploration of personal identity.

One group of editions is dedicated specifically to self-portraits.

Of course, the library has monographs by authors who have made a significant contribution to portrait painting; from older ones (Dürer, Velasquez, Rembrandt, etc.), through more modern ones (Kokoschka, Francis Bacon, Andy Warhol) to contemporary authors (Chuck Close, Luc Tuymans, Lucian Freud, Alice Neel, Alex Katz, Stanley Spencer and others).

More interesting literature:

• Sandy Nairne, Sarah Howgate: The Potrait Now, Yale University Press, 2006.

• Norbert Schneider: Art of the Portrait, Taschen, 1995.

• Roland Kanz: Portraits, Taschen, 2008.

• Robin Gibson, Keith Roberts: British portrait painters, Phaidon, 1972.

• Sean Kelly, Edward Lucie-Smith: The Self Portrait: A Modern View, Seven Hills Books, 1987.

• Julian Bell: 500 Self-Portraits, Phaidon Press, 2004.

Ernst Rebel: Self-Portraits, Taschen, 2008

• Katharine Baetjer, Marjorie Shelley: Pastel Portraits: Images of 18th-Century Europe, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2011.

• Predrag Goll, Darko Schneider, Zdenko Tonković: Self-Portrait in Recent Croatian Painting, Osijek, 1977

• 1st Triennial of Croatian Self-Portrait, Samobor, 2008

• Marijana Schneider: Portraits 1800 – 1870, Zagreb, 1973

• Biserka Rauter Plančić: Portraits in 2 Herzegovinian Collections of Fine Arts of the 20th Century, Čapljina, 2012

• Krleža in the Works of Fine Artists, Osijek, 1974
• Exhibition of Yugoslav Portrait No. 2, 4, 6, 8, Tuzla, 1971 – 1997
• Exhibition of Italian Portraiture through the Centuries, Belgrade, 1938.
• Gustav Seitz: Deutsche Portratplastik des 20. Jahrhunderts, Leipzig, 1958.
• Ludwig Goldscheider: Zeitlose Kunst, Vienna, 1934.

• Gunda Luyken, Siegfried Gohr: Reisen isn Ich: Kunstler / Selbst / Bild, Essl Museum, 2001.

• Günter Oberhollenzer: Sehnsucht ich, Essl Museum, 2013.

• Mark W. Scala: Paint Made Flesh Vanderbilt University Press, 2009.
• Charlotte Mullins: Painting People, Thames & Hudson, 2006.

• Constance M. Perkins: A New Direction: The Figure 1963-1968 (Painting and Sculpture in the USA) Belgrade, 1969
• Marc Valli, Margherita Dessanay: A Brush with the Real: Figurative Painting Today Laurence King, London, 2014.
• Lauren P. Della Monica: Bodies of Work: Contemporary Figurative Painting, Schiffer Publishing, 2016.