ABSTRACT
By portraying Narcissus as an awkward character, the story of portraiture places emphasis on the fact that portraiture constitutes a synthesis of both external appearance and internal characteristics. Dualism is best exemplified in portraiture, as an imbalance created by an emphasis on the face at the expense of an overlooked body. Roman rule depended on noble hereditary divine rights, which in the context of portraiture simply posed as an excuse for idealisation. Where the Hellenic portrait was seen as providing a balance between "individual character" and "nature", the early modern court portrait becomes a "balance between personal individuality and universal canon". In contrast to Hellenistic and Egyptian traditions of accurate representation, physical likeness was not the primary concern of early Christian art. Physiognomy is attuned to Plato's dualism, since its vision of an inner 'order' is parallel to his notion of a correct vision of the cosmic order revealed by reason.
