How to look at an antique portrait? A guide to learn how to observe

Antique portraits not only capture faces from the past: they also teach us to read the history, fashion, social hierarchy and psychology of those who played the leading role in each era. To learn how to look at an antique portrait is to enter a visual universe full of symbolic messages, aesthetic decisions and meaningful elements.To illustrate this guide, we will analyze one of the most fascinating figures of Louis XIV’s Versailles: the “Portrait of Madame Montespan”, possibly painted by a court painter such as Pierre Mignard. 1. The expression of the gaze First of all, let’s look at the