The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the pe

rson. For this reason, in photography a portrait is generally not a snapshot, bu

t a composed image of a person in a still position. A portrait often shows a per
son looking directly at the painter or photographer
Most early representations that are clearly intended to show an individual are o
f rulers, and tend to follow idealizing artistic conventions, rather than the in
dividual features of the subject's body, though when there is no other evidence
as to the ruler's appearance the degree of idealization can be hard to assess. N
onetheless, many subjects, such as Akhenaten and some other Egyptian pharaohs, c
an be recognised by their distinctive features.
Some of the earliest surviving painted portraits of people who were not rulers a
re the Greco-Roman funeral portraits that survived in the dry climate of Egypt's
Fayum district. These are almost the only paintings from the classical world th
at have survived, apart from frescos, though many sculptures and portraits on co
ins have fared better. Although the appearance of the figures differs considerab
ly, they are considerably idealized, and all show relatively young people, makin
g it uncertain whether they were painted from life.