Free Custom «The Portrait» Essay Paper

The portrait appears in red chalk. People widely believe that it is a portrait of Leonardo Da Vinci. People also believe that Leonardo drew the portrait himself when he was about 60 years old. Many artists have reproduced the portrait, a move that has led to most people believing that he is a Renaissance man.

The owner of the portrait drew it on a piece of paper using chalk. The portrait indicates the image of an elderly man in his late 70s. It is a three-dimensional image facing the right side of the viewer. The subject, who in this case is Leonardo Da Vinci, appears to have long hair and a long beard flowing over the shoulders and breasts (Priwer 63). This is not a common phenomenon in Renaissance portraits, suggesting that the individual is a person of sagacity. The nose of the portrait image has aquiline features with deep lines on the brow and pouches below the eyes. The way in which his grooves from the nostrils have deepened is an indication that he is likely to have lost his front teeth. His eyes do not engage the viewer. The portrait indicates long eyebrows and the dull eyes communicate a sense of disillusionment in the individual. This speaks a lot about Leonardo Da Vinci. To the extent that he was a role model among the proponents of Renaissance, he must have reached a place and got disillusioned about life and his expectations about life in general. An individual gets disillusioned after making several attempts in changing the nature of existing trends without success. Furthermore, the sad look on his face at that time indicates that he had given up on his artistic adventures and that he had no more new things to offer in the world of art.

 

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People have not stopped criticizing the actuality of the portrait. Many argue that the portrait is not a true reflection of Leonardo Da Vinci. They base their argument on the fact that the person on the portrait is much older, almost the age of Leonardo’s father. In fact, at his death, Leonardo was only 67 years. However, the image in this portrait does not depict a 67-year-old individual.

From a different perspective, the portrait shows a man of knowledge and determination. He appears as a serious man who entertained no nonsense, and always focused on achieving his targets. His use of chalk in the portrait indicates the trend of those days. There was less development in terms of innovation, as we can see the lack of good drawing facilities. He, therefore, opts to use chalk in making the portrait (Grafton 70).

The portrait depicts the subject as a naturalist. Looking at the portrait, one can see that the author used chalk to make the portrait. Probably, there must have been other alternative ways of drawing the portrait. However, the author chose to use chalk to make the portrait. This shows how natural Leonardo was in his artistic work.

From the portrait, we can see that the individual wants the world to view him as a determined and focused man, who has an aim of achieving in life. The way he appears not to engage the viewer indicates that he does not entertain destruction from issues.

The portrait reveals the private aspect of the subject more than the public. For instance, the fact that he does not seem to be a victim of destruction is an aspect of his private life that come out clearly in the portrait. However, the public component of the subject also comes out in the sense that the portrait depicts him as a knowledgeable and determined individual.

In conclusion, many have argued that the portrait does not indicate the real image of Leonardo Da Vinci at his point of death. However, artists have come up with several portraits of Leonardo after his departure.