The special types of the portraits, shown here, include the content aspects, for instance the attributes (e.g. the instruments), the allegories (such as the Musica) or the gods of mythology and other persons, who escort the musicians (e.g. Athena, Mercury, Apollo accompanied by the nine Muses; Pythagoras as the inventor of the harmonic intervals of music) and also the formal elements, e.g. the kind of posture of the musician, the ambience etc. Therefore they are the result of concept and style. In this publication, the iconographical and stylistic evolution of the portraits is illustrated with 416 elected characteristic examples. An important point in this work is the verification of traditional contribution to the painters and graphic artists and the dates of the portraits and their authenticity, that means, whether the portrait was performed at the lifetime of the musician and fits to the work of the artist or if it is of later origin.
