Maria Loh

Still Lives: Death, Desire and the Portrait of the Old Master

Art historian and writer Maria Loh looks at the rise of celebrity among Renaissance artists and the rapid expansion of portraiture and self-portraiture in painting and sculpture. Michelangelo was one of the first big international art stars – stalked by admirers lambasted by critics and painted in unauthorised portraits. Loh explains how the Renaissance artists were the first whose faces were often as recognised as their art and how this was down to the rise of portraiture and of new image technologies such as printing and oil painting. What challenges did it throw up for artists and how did it change the everyday lives of artists and the way they perceived themselves as figures in the history of art? Loh teaches art history at University College London and is also author of Titian Remade: Repetition and the Transformation of Early Modern Italian Art.