Portraits..
Portraits, what do they say about us? In Renaissance time portraits were a way of expressing oneself, and showing to others their luxuries. This was a times where theatre was the way in which people could express their selves in a manner that they wouldn’t out of their “actor” role. Portraits were a way for people to see their self. While reading the chapter what caught my attention, was how Queen Elizabeth I would advise Nicholas Hilliard “in the best way to seat her in order to get the required results for her painted image.” This reminds me of how celebrities are usually posing a certain way when their pictures are being taken.
http://fashionbombdaily.com/2009/07/16/strike-a-pose-how-to-work-the-camera/
This makes me wonder why do we pose a certain way or smile one way?. I suppose because we have probably practice working on our self in a way that we want to appear to others. If we didn’t then when we have our portraits taken we wouldn’t look “nice.” Everyone wants to look good in pictures, I know I do, and so does everyone else. We all have our “good” and bad” sides. I think that this good and bad side exists because people photograph better during certain angles and in the way they pose. This is similar to what the text refers to “such manners were self-evidently the product of education, effort, and artifice.”
The costumes that people would wear during the Renaissance period were very big, and by the looks of it uncomfortable. This could be a reason why they could sit, stand, and pose a certain way as well. This is relevant to our fashion now, and how certain designers dress models in these extravagant costumes, and it takes stylists and costume historians to research the type of look they are trying to convey in their photographs. 
All this type of portraiture
is art in its unique form. As humans we all convey a different type of art, in the way we move, speak, etc. Even the effortless poses are art at its best. Like the text says, “we can truthfully say that true art is what does not seem to be art,” Effortless effort, is what is captured and to many that can be considered the best type of art. Without trying, in essence the moment of life is captured, and that I believe is what truly defines the selfhood, which is living in the moment.
http://uk.ask.com/wiki/Greenwich_armor
http://www.tomandlorenzo.com/2010/03/demi-moore-in-harpers-bazaar-2.html
http://twentysecond8.wordpress.com/2012/03/08/in-praise-of-effortlessness/
red carpet = Renn. Portrait?
Not the red carpet, that was just the images I found of Beyonce, I was trying to show her way of posing when she’s being photographed. She has a certain side or style of posing to show off herself. Which I was trying to relate to Queen Elizabeth the I during the Renaissance era, I was trying to make it relevant to dress now.