January 15th - "Who is that person?" Assignment

This portrait looks very Middle Ages to me, the pose that the subject holds, along with his clothing and the paints used, all back up that theory in my mind. The subject is young and looks like he has never worked a day in his life. His soft, pale skin that leads me to believe that he was born into some deal of money. If he or someone could afford to have a portrait commissioned of him they would have to have a bit of money back in the middle ages and even in today’s time.

It’s possible that he is royalty, being the son of a king, or a duke, or someone else donning a crown. The ring on his finger looks to be golden or some sort of precious metal so someone he is related to has money. I’m not one hundred percent sure what the children of royalty dress like but his cap doesn’t strike me as something that the rich would wear. It could be that he is the son of royalty who holds himself in a bit of a rebellious anti-wealth kind of style. His hair doesn’t look perfectly well kept, but it’s clean. He’s definitely the kind of person that can afford a regular bath.

Even though he doesn’t look like he has done much physical labor in his lifetime, his face looks tired. He’s glancing over his right shoulder at something that he has a great deal of emotion attached to. I’m not sure if he’s watching men ride off in to battle and wanting to be one of them, or watching the love of his life walk away from him. But whatever he is looking at, he appears to be lost in deep thought about something. He looks like he is both optimistic and sad about whatever has caught his gaze. I’m curious as to why for portrait he chose a pose that is so effeminate. Typically when I see a portrait from this time period, or a portrait of anyone in general, they are striking some kind of valiant pose. Or at least a pose that puts them in some sort of positive or at least masculine light.

There really is something about the subject’s face that strikes me though. I can’t seem to wrap my mind around what is going on in his mind. He doesn’t look sad, but he doesn’t look happy, melancholy, optimistic, pessimistic, noble, apathetic, or any of the emotions that come to my mind. He just looks like he is thinking very hard about something.

As a last thought I will add that to my knowledge, portraits were paid for by the arm and leg (hence the phrase). So my other wild idea is that he is a young Irish businessman (he looks very Irish) about to go off into battle with the damn Brits. His wife is pregnant and in the case that the man dies in battle he wants a portrait for his son to remember him by. So he and his wife scrape together what little money they have, the man takes a bath and puts on his father’s golden ring and a portrait is painted. Then the Irishman goes valiantly off into battle to fight the British.