The armor and other elements of the visual repertoire in the art of the genealogical portrait

Genealogical portraiture, through the pictorial representation of the descendants of a royal family (and nobility), had the role of visually marking, in chronological order, a succession of sovereigns and to emphasize the importance of dynastic continuity. Thus, the portrait was to provide, on one hand, information about his identity, individuality and visual individualization of the represented character. The other hand, it was to indicate data of another order, namely information about the seniority of the family whose descendant was the character, and about its military and political tradition. This type of portrait was made according to models and rules established by the artists who worked for these families, and was continuously supplemented and perfected with representative details, which were later constituted as visual sources for the new compositions. This means that around each character there is a descriptive context, to indicate a certain space, and a number of visual elements (armor, sword, general's baton or scepter, helmet, gloves) with a symbolic role, which lead to the idea that the representation is one of a character with a special status.