Symbolism: An analysis of portrait painting

Portrait painting as a genre appears in almost every period in art history. In this study, formation and development of the portrait painting concept before and after Renaissance period has been studied by giving examples from Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greek, Roman, and Ancient Uyghur art. It has been observed that portrait art showed differences and similarities depending on the period and the artist. In addition, the effects of elements such as melancholia, mysticism, spirituality, which are frequently seen in symbolist paintings, and their relation to symbolistic paintings have been discussed in this research. This study includes the researcher's personal artwork. Thus, the last section of the research explains the influence of symbolism on their personal portrait paintings with detailed explanations.