![Spanish court painter Diego Velázquez, on the left at the easel, painting the portrait ‘Las Meninas’ (detail).](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/las-meninas-titel-300x225.jpg)
Face to face: a history of portrait painting
Thanks to digital technology, the creation and sharing of portraits is now popular, cheap, and almost obligatory. Before the advent of photography, this task was fulfilled by portrait painting. We take a look at its origins and how it evolved.
From mummies to donors
!['L'Européenne’, a Roman mummy portrait from Egypt, 100-150 AD](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/leuropeenne-ein-romisches-mumienportrat-aus-agypten-100-150-n-chr-200x300.jpg)
![A dedication miniature in the Gundold-Evangeliar, a manuscript from the Kölner Buchmalerschule, which originated between 1026 and 1050.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/widmungsbild-im-gundold-evangeliar-213x300.jpg)
![Giotto di Bondones (1267/1276 – 1337), Portrait of Enrico Scrovegni at the Arena Chapel (Cappella degli Scrovegni) in Padua symbolically presenting the chapel donated by him.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/portrat-des-enrico-scrovegni-in-der-arenakapelle-216x300.jpg)
Moving away from religious themes
![In strict profile: John II (Jean II le Bon), King of France from 1350 to 1364. Portrait by an unknown master.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/johann-der-ii-der-gute-183x300.jpg)
![This portrait (presumed to be of Robert des Masmines), which was painted circa 1425/30, is attributed to the Master of Flémalle, from the workshop of the early Netherlandish master, Robert Campin.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/robert-des-masmines-182x300.jpg)
![The diptych of Piero della Francesca on two individual panels with a connecting background shows Battista Sforza and Federico da Montefeltro (c. 1472), Duke and Duchess of Urbino.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/piero-della-francesca-300x211.jpg)
![The ‘Arnolfini Portrait’, painted in 1434 by Jan van Eyck, depicts a couple in an indoor space.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/arnolfini-hochzeit-219x300.jpg)
The self-portrait takes hold
![In the ‘Self-Portrait at Twenty-Eight’, painted in 1500, Albrecht Dürer portrays himself as a Christ-like figure with the pride of an artistic genius.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/albrecht-durer-213x300.jpg)
![Etching by Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, 1630.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/radierung-von-rembrandt-266x300.jpg)
The golden age of portrait painting
![Staging of papal authority: With this official ecclesiastical portrait, which was painted circa 1518, depicting Pope Leo X (Giovanni de’ Medici) with Cardinals Giulio de’ Medici (later Pope Clement VII) and Luigi de’ Rossi, Raphael set a new standard for papal portraits that lasted for many years.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/papst-leo-x-227x300.jpg)
![Tititan painted this equestrian portrait, which is reminiscent of statues from Antiquity (e.g. Marcus Aurelius in Rome), of Emperor Charles V in 1548, commemorating the victory of the imperial troops over the Protestants near Mühlberg.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/kaiser-karl-v-1548-252x300.jpg)
![Was Anne of Cleves really not as beautiful as Hans Holbein the Younger had depicted her? We don’t know. What is certain, however, is that King Henry VIII was bitterly disappointed when he first met his wife in person.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/anna-von-kleve-225x300.jpg)
![Diego Velázquez, ‘Las Meninas’, 1656](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/las-meninas-komplett-264x300.jpg)
![Armed with straw hat, paintbrushes and palette: French painter Louise-Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun in a self-portrait from 1783.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/vigee-le-brun-216x300.jpg)
Continuity of portrait painting in the age of photography
![Vincent van Gogh's (1853-1890) portrait of Doctor Gachet was painted in 1890.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/van-gogh-gachet-249x300.jpg)
![Franz Gertsch, ‘Johanna I’, 1983/1984](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/gertsch-johanna-300x298.jpg)