The Face of the City: Civic Portraiture and Civic Identity in Early Modern EnglandRobert Tittler2013

Our conventional understanding of English portraiture from the age of Holbein and Henry VIII through to Rubens, Van Dyck and Charles I clings to the mainstream images of royalty and aristocracy.
The civic portraits examined here stand in sharp contrast to these traditional narratives. Depicting mayors and aldermen, livery company masters, school and college heads, they were meant to be read as statements about the civic leaders and civic institutions rather than about the sitters in their own right.
Manchester University Press

Titre original : The Face of the City: Civic Portraiture and Civic Identity in Early Modern England (2013)