This work sets out to analyze some of the major works of early modern portraiture and takes a close look at 50 major works, including paintings by Jan Van Eyck, Holbein the Younger, Raphael, Mantegna and Botticelli. The portraits presented here are selected exclusively from works executed between the late Middle Ages and the 17th century - for it was then that portraiture came into its own. The portraits themselves have been chosen on the basis of their subjects' rank and profession. The value of this method of selection is its proximity to both the painters' intentions and their patrons' requirements.