Through Figures:the Study Of Western Portraiture

The thesis is divided into two sections:The first section generalizes the concepts of portrait, figure, etc, and through the investigation of the western art history, testifies to the two different creation forms during the evolution of portrait art:the first type includes vivid images portraying man’s own figure and inner emotions, like the Roman and Renaissance portraits, an exact reproduction of rational fragment; the second focuses on the directly visual presentation of figures existing in the world by the authentic feelings from the artists themselves, as the realm from the prehistoric, ancient Egypt, the middle ages, and eventually achieved by Paul Cezanne et al.The last section is principally concentrated on analyzing their methods in which they created the images, based on my long practical experience of depicting portraits, as well as through the investigation of portrait works painted by Paul Cezanne, Alberto Giacometti, and Francis Bacon. Cezanne tends to produce life-like images paralleled to the real person by capturing the real inner thoughts and forms with the basis on the feelings; Giacometti explores the existing conditions of the existence and transience and of the visible and the invisible, by the visual meditation on human beings in space; In Bacon’s portrait, he practices by penetrating all senses guided by the impromptu sensation directly deriving from the nerve systems. Hence, this thesis highlights the main point of view:"Being through figures" is the approach to directly observing the intuitive trueness of the real objects and achieving the perfect and natural level. Through the analysis of the artists’portrait forms of creation, this thesis attempts to lead in a new direction the issue " What does the painting do in the imagery-time".