A popular subject in art has been the portrait, which many painters have dealt intensively for a long time. Generally, people in the high classes, such as Kings, Popes, Emperors, Cardinals or the rich, made their images in order to show off their status and wealth through their portraits. The images of their portraits show precisely a resemblance, with which the people tried to maintain their social system. In due course, the resemblance or the outer similarity let the people play an important role for justifying the hierarchical system as an idealistic way, even sacred way.
In the early 16th Century a new form of representation was developed in accordance with the increasing interests for human beings. Especially, we can see the new form of the representation in the characteristics of the portraits of the Renaissance humanists in Northern Europe, who believed the immortality of the souls in spite of the human mortality. So, the portraits of the Northern Renaissance humanists were mainly expressed the life motto of the portrayed person, or their personal mission in life, not the physical similarities. In doing so, the portraits of the humanists did not create the archetypal image within the persons’ faces. Rather, the Renaissance humanists were usually portrayed as writers or thinkers, focusing on the importance of the mental activities.
This essay presents the "portraits of the Northern Renaissance humanist" such as 〈Conrad Celtis〉 by Hans Burgkmair and 〈Erasmus〉, 〈Melanchton〉, 〈Pirckheimer〉 by Albrecht Durer. The portraits of the Renaissance humanist seem to pursue the “spiritual appearances” for the purpose of expressing the perpetuation of individuals, who were aware of their self-esteem in accordance with the teaching of Renaissance humanism as well as Christian Doctrine: 〈For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live〉(Romans 8, 13). According to the teachings of Renaissance humanism, the human is not miserable creature any more (Innocent III, De miseria hominis), but a dignified being (Giannozzo Manetti, De dignitate et exellentia hominis), which means that the teachings on human being had been changed from Medieval worldview to Renaissance worldview. Because the human was referred to as a spiritual being, “the spiritual life” became greatly important as the theme of portraiture from the 16th Century.