Now I get it -- Pictures versus portraits / paintings

I wondered before why with all these pictures of Harry's parents and Dumbledore that none of them talked. Now I understand that photos don't talk and those in them don't move between like they do in paintings. In Chapter Fifteen Phineas Nigellus explains that portraits within Hogwarts may move between other portraits, but can't go beyond Hogwarts, except to visit a painting of themselves that is somewhere else.

It might have been explained before, but this time it finally sunk in Helpful tid-bit.

You know, I hadn't thought about it. The fact that there is something different in a snapshot and a painting . . .

Ms. Rowling did not discuss the portraits much. I imagine the artists must have had a great deal of training to imbue each portrait with an "essence" of the subject--don't you think? Would that make the portraits sort of like the horcruxes?

AHacker

In a way, yes.

Now I wonder what the history of all those people in Hogwarts is, so that they deserved a painting. Was the fat-lady a historical character for Hogwarts, other than being there when all the characters went to school?