In the modern age we are quite used to the wonders of film and photography. For the last century or so, anyone's image could be accurately captured for posterity. The...
In the modern age we are quite used to the wonders of film and photography. For the last century or so, anyone's image could be accurately captured for posterity. The most sensitive portraits, of course, reveal much more about the sitter than his appearance: they evoke some inner mood, some characteristic emotion. In ancient Peru, the nobility had themselves portrayed for eternity in terracotta. We recognize in images like this one the confidence and pride of a ruling aristocracy. To look upon such a portrait is to glimpse the soul of a vanished culture.