The art of portraiture approached its apex during the sixteenth century in
Europe with the discovery of oil painting when the old masters developed and
refined techniques that remain unsurpassed to this day. The ascendance of
nonrepresentational art in the middle of the twentieth century displaced these
venerable skills, especially in academic art circles. Fortunately for aspiring
artists today who wish to learn the methods that allowed the Old Masters to
achieve the luminous color and subtle tonalities so characteristic of their
work, this knowledge has been preserved in hundreds of small traditional
painting ateliers that persevered in the old ways in this country and throughout
the world.