Marketing Animals - Antennae The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture

The Human Portrait
Portraiture is deeply embedded in human culture.
When viewing a human portrait, we reflexively
project imaginings of personality onto the subject
portrayed. We “see” characteristics like wisdom,
vulnerability, power, glamour, and so forth,
depending on the particular portrait. The portrait
has been used over the ages as a powerful
propaganda tool. From the sculpted portraits of
Roman emperors, to the recent, and now
infamous, Shepard Fairey/Associated Press “Hope”
image of presidential candidate Barack Obama,
the portrait has been used to create strong,
positive images of the subject portrayed. In
achieving such positive projections, the physical
likeness of the portrait to the subject is a small
and largely insignificant part of the whole. Rather
it is the overall form and content of the portrait
that constitute the repository of the message
being conveyed.
For instance, in the Obama “Hope”
poster, the message is largely conveyed by the
overall composition of the image. The central
positioning of the portrait combines with the tilted
stance of the face to create a diagonal
composition that leads to a feeling of strength
and dynamism (Condit, 2010). The use of
repeating blocks of red and blue not only
heighten the diagonal composition, but are used
to evoke the American flag and, in Fairey’s own
words, “convey the idea of blue and red states,
Democrats and Republicans, converging” (Fairey
and Gross, 2009, p7).
Context, on the other hand, conveys the
message in Jacques-Louis David’s famous
“Bonaparte Crossing the Great St Bernard
Pass.” Here Napoleon’s “greatness” is implied as
he follows in the footsteps of Hannibal and
Charlemagne - the unstoppable hero on a
symbolic white horse (Welch, 2005).
The individuality, or what Pope-Hennessy
(1979) describes as “The Cult of Personality” that
we read in a portrait, is not a result of physical
likeness, but is transmitted through symbolism –
be that symbolism contained in physiognomic
codes and ciphers; in the carriage, bearing or
gestures of the individual portrayed; or in the
ancillary elements of dress, jewellery, context, or
allegorical or other symbols.
Animal Imagery
Animal images can also create strong, positive
values. For example, experimental work has
established that animal “attractiveness” increases
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Fig. 5. Shepard Fairey
Hope, 2008 Fairey/Garcia
people’s support for protection and conservation.
More support is expressed for large animals and
those who resemble humans (Gunnthorsdottir
2009). However, traditionally, “animal art” has
been about humans not about animals. In large
part, animals have been shown as symbolic
icons, as decorative items, or as human
companions. “Portraits” of companion animals or
working animals provide a commentary on
human achievement or human possession. In
contemporary art, many artists are concerned
with social commentary. Again, much of this
engages with human behaviours in relation to
animals, and with human social and cultural
frameworks as they affect animals rather than with
the essence of the animal.
The animal becomes more central in
genres such as wildlife photography, wildlife
illustration, and in art which is concerned with the
natural world. Here the animal is predominant,
but in a way that is detached from the human.
Scientific illustration objectifies the animal as a
subject of study, whereas wildlife photography,
while glorifying the animal, treats him as a