FRAMING THE FACE: COLLARS AND RUFFS

'Framing the Face: Collars and Ruffs' is an exhibition currently being shown at the National Portrait Gallery in London. The portraits featured are primarily from the 1500's-1600's and it's aim is to show how fashion, 'collars and ruffs' have changed in British fashion for men and women. it was surprising the amount of paintings in the collection that had no artist attached to it, the time they spent creating these incredibly detailed paintings just to be credited with 'by an unknown artist.' The paintings are typical of the time period and always seem to remind me of portraits I have seen of Henry VIII. While the point of the exhibition is to show the extravagant lace and ruffles worn by British aristocracy, I think the focus is still on the face for a lot of these paintings. The pasty white faces contrast against the often dark dresses or background and the ruffle collars around the neck draws you to the face. It's strange how similar the features are in all the paintings despite being by different artists, it shows how controlled art was in the 16th and 17th century. Portrait artists in the 21st century show little to no resemblance to these images, so it's fun to see how portrait paintings have developed and how art in general has become a lot more individual and artists are relatively free to create what they like.