Portraits and Philosophy

Hans Maes is Senior Lecturer in History and Philosophy of Art at the University of Kent. He is the author of Conversations on Art and Aesthetics (2017) and editor of the essay collections Art and Pornography (2012) and Pornographic Art and the Aesthetics of Pornography (2013).

• Introduction: Portraits and PhilosophyHans MaesPart I. The Nature of Portraiture1. Portraiture PortrayedIvan Gaskell2. Portraiture and Portrait-Seeing: From Caravaggio to Digital SelfiesAlessandro Giovannelli3. Portraits, Persons, and PosesPaul Guyer4. Philosophy of Portraiture: A Programmatic OverviewMatteo RavasioPart II. Subgenres and Special Cases5. Double PortraitureEleen M. Deprez and Michael Newall6. Moving Picture PortraitsCynthia Freeland7. Portraits of People Not PresentBence Nanay8. Portraits of the LandscapeErich Hatala Matthes9. Sport Card PortraitureJason HoltPart III. Portraiture, Empathy, and Emotion10. Truth and Empathy in the Portraits of KokoschkaJenefer Robinson11. Without Shame? Lee Friedlander’s Late Self-PortraitsDiarmuid Costello12. ‘And Time Will Have His Fancy…’: On Being Moved by Portraits of Unknown PeopleHans MaesPart IV. Portraiture, Fiction, and Depiction13. Real Portraits in LiteratureStacie Friend14. The Power of Picasso: Reconciling Realism and Anti-Realism in the Portrait of Gertrude SteinIra Newman15. Portraiture: Seeing As and Seeing InMartin HammerPart V. The Ethics of Portraiture16. The Ethics of PortraitureA.W. Eaton17. The Sublime Clara MatherKenneth Walden18. Respecting Photographic SubjectsMacalester BellEpilogue: Portraits of PhilosophersHans Maes

"Portraits and Philosophy is a philosophical invitation to reconsider portraits as an artistic genreas well as an object of philosophical investigation. Moreover, chapter after chapter, this bookdebunks all the underlying skepticism and prejudices against the possibility of substantialreflection on this topic. The book is philosophical aesthetics done at its best: this collection ofeighteen original articles written by philosophers and art historians— plus an introduction and anepilogue by the editor—not only shows philosophical insight, but establishes a substantial androbust dialogue between philosophy, art history and art practice that one frequently expects, butrarely finds, in the aesthetics literature." – MIND"This book seems certain to establish the philosophy of portraiture as a new and important topic of debate within philosophy and to demonstrate the centrality of philosophical aesthetics to the issues of self, identity and our understanding of each other, that concern us all." – Ian Ground, University of Hertfordshire, UK"This is an excellent book on the elusive but pervasive genre of portraiture. It provides the reader with conceptual tools to understand the boundaries of the genre, the value of portraits and some ethical issues they give rise to. Also, it invites the reader to consider interesting questions such as whether there can be portraits of absent sitters, how to understand sport cards portraits or fictional portraits appearing in literary works." – Paloma Atencia-Linares, National Autonomous University of Mexico