"Shearer West traces the history of portraiture from the ancient world to the work of artists such as Tracey Emin and the Singh twins. She looks at the genre from a varity of perspectives, asking key question about its development. What is its function? How has it changed over the centuries? What problems do artists encounter in representing their subjects, and how have portraits been interpreted? Shearer West uncovers much intriguing detail about a genre that has often been seen as purely representational, and in doing so shows us how to communicate with the past in an exciting new way."--BOOK JACKET.