The National Gallery London Address Book: Faces

The theme for this address book is the subject of faces. Faces are everywhere in the National Gallery's collection, in portraits and within narrative scenes and paintings of everyday life. Full-page colour images from the collection are interspersed throughout the address book, focusing on a close up of an individual face within a painting (Ghirlandaio's gentle and innocent "Portrait of a Girl", for instance, or Durer's sensitive and dignified "The Painter's Father") or on a group of faces taken from several paintings and themed by subject. Amongst the many subjects covered in the book are children from different centuries, self-portraits of artists, old age and famous historical figures. Individual facial features are also shown: a succession of profiles from wide varying paintings is revealing, contrasting noses of all shapes and sizes, and a sequence of eloquent and expressive eyes communicates a surprising variety of emotions.