The Florentine painter Leonardo da Vinci painted his portrait of Ginevra dei Benci around 1475. It was a portrayal of a young, wealthy woman who was set against an idealized landscape. The American painter John Singleton Copley painted his portrait of a Boston silversmith named Paul Revere in 1768. Paul Revere was to become famous as a hero in the American Revolutionary War. But, his participation in events such as the Boston Tea Party, came a few years after this picture was painted. Copley portrayed a man who was a prominent local artisan, and he portrayed him in the context of his work. A comparison of the two works reveals a great deal about the differences in the nature of Renaissance society in Florence and the society of Colonial Boston, as well as the manner in which the artists incorporated the values of their societies into their portraits.
Leonardo's portrait presents Ginevra simply as a pretty woman. The picture does not offer any clues about her personality or her behavior, except what is visible on her face. But several other facts give a great deal of indirect information about Ginevra. The portrait was painted for private use, but was intended to make a statement to the world at large. But that world was the limited one that consisted of the small number of people at the same social level as the Benci family. In this sense, the portrait confirmed the family's ability to afford such a portrait, their good taste in choosing an admired painter, and their status as cultured people. Whether all these things were true or not, this is the impression that such a portrait would give. In such cases, the painter might be chosen because he was fashionable or because a friend or rival had employed him. The patrons might have had very little culture at all, and merely used the commissioning of portraits as a means of giving the appearance of being cultured.
It is also a significant fact that Ginevra is a woman...