This publication defines the portrait of a diplomat as its own art historical category for the first time. Using 25 select paintings from the 15th-18th centuries, as well as numerous comparative illustrations, the author demonstrates how diplomats had themselves represented over the course of time, and which visual strategies and intentions artists and patron pursued. Unrecognized levels of meaning have been uncovered and important masterpieces in the history of art have been newly interpreted in the process.
