Hidden Faces

Covered Portraits of the Renaissance
Highlighting the creativity and symbolism of covered portraits, this volume explores an intriguing but largely unknown aspect of Italian and Northern European Renaissance art
Highlighting the creativity and symbolism of covered portraits, this volume explores an intriguing but largely unknown aspect of Italian and Northern European Renaissance art

Many small Renaissance portraits were richly adorned with covers or backs bearing allegorical figures, mythological scenes, or emblems that celebrated the sitter and invited the viewer to decipher their meaning. Hidden Faces includes seventy objects, ranging in format from covered paintings to miniature boxes, that illuminate the symbiotic relationship between the portrait and its pair. Texts by thirteen distinguished scholars vividly illustrate that the other “faces” of these portraits represent some of the most innovative images of the Renaissance, created by masters such as Hans Memling and Titian. Uniting works that have in some cases been separated for centuries, this fascinating volume shows how the multifaceted format unveiled the sitter’s identity, both by physically revealing the portrait and reading the significance behind its cover.
 
Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Distributed by Yale University Press
 
Exhibition Schedule:
 
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
(April 2–July 7, 2024)

Contributor: Alison Manges Nogueira (Edited by), Maryan Wynn Ainsworth (Contributions by), Andrea Bayer (Contributions by), Carmen C. Bambach (Contributions by), Angelica Dülberg (Contributions by), Shirin Fozi (Contributions by), Wolfram Koeppe (Contributions by), Sarah E. Lawrence (Contributions by), Femke Spielberg (Contributions by), Delphine Tonglet (Contributions by), Joshua Waterman (Contributions by), Catherine Whistler (Contributions by), Joanna Seidenstein (Contributions by)

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