Portraits?

[dfrankis at dial.pipex.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 19886

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., floridian127 at y... wrote:
> CoS referred to the old headmasters on the wall as portraits. 
> I use portrait to mean professional photograph not painting. I take 
> my own pictures. Pictures do not talk or visit others, they just 
> smile and wave. But didn't someone mention the Headmasters visiting 
> Sir Calahan? I expect paintings to be one-of-a-kinds, otherwise you 
> would have multiple fat ladies wandering around. What are 
considered 
> Portraits in the UK?  
> 
> Floridian, needing magic to fight the fires. 
> Sorry if this rambles, I just ate a pepper flavored bean. yuk 
> 
> 
> 
In the UK, it's normal for long-established schools (and similar 
institutions such as Oxford colleges) to have portraits of previous 
heads (or provosts, rectors, masters, deans, or whatever the post is 
called).  These are paintings, even for recent incumbents, and I 
would expect that Dumbledore, being quite old, has already sat for 
his.

The unqualified word portrait is usually understood to mean a 
painting, but portrait-style photos would also be so-called.

Colin Creevey's remarks imply that wizard photography is a potion 
applied to develop a conventional film.  This does not completely 
rule out the possibility of another separate magical process (I can't 
remember what Bozo does, if we're told); but it wouldn't have been 
possible until conventional photography was invented.

I'm pretty sure that Dumbledore's study has paintings, not mugshots.

David