Portraits & Identity

Practice "reading" a painting like a story — who, what, when, where.

Learn how Rembrandt used light and dark (chiaroscuro) to focus attention and create mood.

Learn how three powerful pharaohs used art and image-making to build their public power.

See how jewelry has communicated status, culture, and identity across 4,000 years.

Study Sargent's confident, "bravura" brushwork and how it creates a sense of life and movement.

We will explore how a portrait and a sculptural mirror turn ideas about identity, relationships, and deception into something we can see and experience.

Feel, before naming, how light direction changes the mood of a portrait.