Why Do Portraits Hold Such Important In Public Places

1. For various reasons, portraits hold much importance in many different places. Portraits can be used judicially, for propaganda, personal uses, and much more. Many portraits have been produced for public places such as religious institutions, in the form of money, and even city squares. Portraits are made to serve specific functions such as a president on a coin or an important Saint for a religious painting in a church. They can be used to record special events or to commemorate important figures throughout different era’s.
2.
In the fifteenth century, most portraits were made based off of people with a higher status. Most were commissioned, therefore, only rich people could afford them. Famous people were often displayed in this way or combined with religious attributes to show certain aspects of that individual. Portraits of eminent people were often displayed in public places to show importance of that particular sitter. For one example, Federico da Montefeltro employed Justus of Ghent at Urbino to paint a series of famous men; a formula was used for these portraits, but each work was unique from the next. Collections of these works were very popular and heavily prized.
3.
In the nineteenth century, more importance was place on national figure portraits. For example, American artist Charles Willson Peale held a
These works placed were put under a higher value to historical works rather than portraits for aesthetic reason. In the National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC , historical portraits were often placed next to furniture from that era. The problem coincides with the matter of bringing in oppressed figures into these spaces, for they are more rare. There isn’t much distinction of these works as pieces of art, they are viewed for historical purposes