A ceremonial portrait is a phenomenon characteristic of court culture. Its main task is not only to convey the similarities, but also to exalt the customer, who, most often, was a high-ranking person or even a monarch.
Features of the genre of ceremonial portrait
Ceremonial portraits became widespread at court. They glorified royalty and their entourage. As a rule, a person was depicted in full growth, standing or sitting on a horse. The background usually served as a landscape or architectural structures. The artist, first of all, focused on the social role of his model. At the same time, her spiritual qualities often faded into the background. Among the distinctive features of the ceremonial portrait are the emphatically theatrical pose of the character, the depiction of numerous regalia, and the magnificent entourage.
Ceremonial portrait in the work of Levitsky
In Russia, the flourishing of the art of ceremonial portraiture falls on the second half of the 18th century. Dmitry Grigorievich Levitsky became the largest representative of the genre. One of the best works of the artist, as well as one of the most unusual ceremonial portraits in all world art, was "Portrait of Prokofiy Akinfievich Demidov".
The well-known philanthropist is depicted against the background of the columns of the Orphanage, of which he was one of the trustees. At the same time, Demidov himself is dressed in a dressing gown, he leans on a watering can and is surrounded by indoor plants. Levitsky says here that his hero is just as caring for orphans from the Orphanage, as for delicate houseplants.
This genre should include a series of portraits of pupils of the Smolny Institute for noble maidens. Charming young people are depicted performing on the theatrical stage, as well as in science and art. This series has become a new kind of ceremonial portrait for Russia - the so-called "portrait in a role", where the subject of the image is not real, but emphatically theatrical life.
The artistic originality of the portrait of Catherine II Borovikovsky
One of the most original examples of a ceremonial portrait was the painting by a younger contemporary of Levitsky - Vladimir Lukich Borovikovsky - "Catherine II on a walk in Tsarskoye Selo Park." The artist depicted the Empress in ordinary clothes, which do not in any way remind of her royal greatness. At the feet of Catherine, her beloved dog frolics.
It is interesting that although the empress herself reacted very coolly to her portrait by Borovikovsky, later it was recognized as one of the best. It is in this image that Catherine appears before Masha Mironova on the pages of Pushkin's story "The Captain's Daughter".
Thus, talented artists often managed to overcome the rather rigid framework of the ceremonial portrait genre.
