Portraits Isabelle d’Este and Adele Bloch-Bauer

Isabelle d’Este by the artist Titian and Adele Bloch-Bauer by Klimt are two well known portraits that depict women of considerable wealth and beauty in our society. The artists who created these portraits each took special care, time, and use of technique to illustrate the beauty, wealth, and power these women held during their time. Portraits can not only contain the artist’s own visions and interpretations, but may also display the perceptions of how the commissioners's see themselves or wish to be perceived by others. This essay will furthermore compare these memorable portraits, by examining their differences and similarities, as well as, by taking a closer look at the style and technique Titian and Klimt each used to capture the essence of these women.

While each of the artists Titian and Klimt choose to paint portraits of women that possessed wealth and beauty, there are noticeably clear differences amongst the art works. First looking at the portrait of Isabelle d’Este, one can see she is depicted in a very clear manner, standing out against a dark black background. This technique allowed Titian to make Isabelle d’Este’s face the focal point of the painting. The fine intricate detail Titian put into Isabelle, from her hair to her clothes, gives the image more of a sense of realism and life likeness. Klimt on the other hand casted Adele’s full body against a background of rectangular shapes filled with colors and images. The curves of her figure breaking the geometric shapes makes her standout in the painting. As Isabelle is captured very defined and life like, Adele is illustrated in a more artful and abstract manner.

Each painting uses the artists’s skills to illustrate women in the position of wealth, which causes several similarities amongst the two art works. The paintings Isabelle d”Este and Adele Bloch-Bauer both depict women of similar wealth and high social status. The portraits therefore, each portray the women as being in a beautiful and