Power in Paint

Royal portraiture was never about capturing a face — it was about projecting an idea:

• The king's two bodies concept meant portraits depicted institutional authority, not personal appearance
• The pose, padding, and scale of a royal portrait were all engineered to project dominance
• Marriage portraits could make or break diplomatic alliances, with real consequences for the painter
• Louis XIV distributed copies of his portrait across Europe as political propaganda

The next carefully lit, carefully angled official photo of a political leader you see belongs to this same tradition — one that runs back through Louis XIV, Henry VIII, and the Roman emperors.