Focusing on paintings by Giorgione, Titian, Parmigianino, and Raphael, Jodi Cranston explores the significance of the formal inventions that address the presence of the beholder, particularly the introduction of a range of poses and self-reflexive gestures, and how such a visual dialogue with the beholder encourages the viewer to perceive the portrait as open and responsive, rather than as a fixed commemoration of the past. Cranston also analyzes the term 'portrait' as it is used in contemporary literature, which describes a resemblance of minds and affections between the sitter and the viewer derived from encounters, such as speaker and listener, lover and beloved, and self and other. Bringing together a wide range of literary and visual sources and applying methods derived from literary theory and structural analysis, this study demonstrates how sixteenth-century portraits extend contemporary efforts to perceive and receive painting as a kind of poetry.