Is there such a thing as the study of the paintings and art depictions of famous historical figures?

[4pmfireworks]

I'll put this in books but I might end up finding what I need on a website. Fingers crossed for book recommendations.

When you read about a very famous historical figure, often the writer will talk about the significance of a particular portrait e.g. the jewelry the person wore, or the artist who painted it, or why it was commissioned. What the message of the piece was. You can build up a mental catalogue comparing and contrasting the various depictions of the person and what they all mean. Is there a name for this? Is this something people study? Is it a branch of history of art, maybe? I imagine that surely it must be!

I am asking because I have fallen down a couple of rabbit holes, reading about some lesser known historical figures and when I google to see images of paintings of them I want to know why, when, by who etc. I could look up each piece individually, but there is often not much information available, and my prior knowledge isn't enough to make it meaningful.

History of art?

https://npgshop.org.uk/collections/books

What an interesting question OP. When I lived in London I used to visit the National Portrait Gallery a lot. I once traced the line of succession all the way through, following the portraits of the various kings and queens through the gallery (quite easy to do as they're organised chronologically). I also really enjoyed the exhibition for the Taylor Wessing portrait prize each year.

There are loads of books available that deal with certain groups of famous figures, so that might be a starting point?

And depending on where you live there's the National Portrait Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh too of course.

Thank you @highlandcoo (great name!) for your answer. Oh how I wish I could visit European portrait galleries. I couldn't be further away!

I haven't yet found a book on what I want, and it's a tricky thing to search. If I google, e.g. 'portrature of Bede' I get loads of depictions of him, but almost no info on who did each one and when and why. And many of the people I am interested in also created their own artwork so googling pictures of them also brings up their own work.

I will keep trying. Haha - maybe I've found a good topic for a paper of my own!! (ahem, a chasm of gaps in my own knowledge to fill before attemting to add to the field!)

I've had an idea! I can go to various national and portrait gallery websites and search the name of the person I'm interested in. That is yielding some results!