A tradition of Renaissance portraiture began to develop as early as the last quarter of the thirteenth century. Portraits were found mainly on tomb monuments and the degree of individualization of particular works by sculptors Pietro Oderisi (1271-1274), Arnolfo di Cambio (c. 1282), Gano da Siena (c. 1315) and Tino di Camaino (completed 1321) are cited by White as examples of portraiture that was based on the stylistic imperatives of the International Gothic style. But such works were unusual and the statue of Ranieri del Porrina by Gano da Siena is unique in its clear individualization and the relative absence of Gothic elements in the "straightforward and entirely unmannered naturalism" of the portrait. A strain of realistic portraiture did develop in the Northern countries around this period. But Gano prefigured the mainstream of Italian portraiture which did not develop until the mid-fifteenth century. When this field did develop, however, it took place under the influence of a major new source of inspiration -- Roman portraits and the general classicizing trends of fifteenth century sculpture, painting and thought.
Other impetuses also affected the development of portraiture. The tradition of formal tomb sculpture had a parallel, for example, in the memorial portraits that began to be painted in the mid-fifteenth century. These memorial portraits displayed the person in profile and, despite basic realism and attention to detail, there is a distinctive lack of any "intimation of the sitter's mood [or] his personality [or] the way his mind works" that is found in Flemish full-face portraits of the same period. It was not until the vogue for classical examples brought a new interest in the portrait as a picture of the living being that the Italians attained this same degree of individuality and psychological penetration in portraiture.
When the Italians began to imitate or to adapt antique models they were faced wi...