Self-portraiture, or Autoportraiture is the field of art theory and history that studies the history, means of production, circulation, reception, forms, and meanings of self-portraits.[1][2][3] Emerging in Antiquity and becoming popular from the Renaissance as an artistic practice, as a specific field of study, self-portraiture is recent, but it has been expanding rapidly.
Ana Peraica wrote, about self-portraiture today, in view of the prolification of the production of self-portraits, particularly the so-called selfies:[4]
Culture of the Selfie is an in-depth art-historical overview of self-portraiture, using a set of theories from visual studies, narratology, media studies, psychotherapy, and political principles.
Self-portraiture does not only encompass the visual arts. Studies emerge from various areas, such as Philosophy.[5] Language development is dynamic and a reality. The term selfie, for example, only emerged in the 1980s. But the term, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, self-portraiture has been known since the seventeenth century.[6] Although, when we refer to self-portraiture almost simultaneously, we are remitted to artistic production, however, if we look at the contemporary literature, we will see that the universe of academic studies, mainly, is focused on several disciplines.[7]
It is possible that self-portraiture has accompanied the emergence of the individual's perception in modern society.[8]
In the visual arts, it is easy to notice the growth of artists' representations as the very theme of their creations. Dürer was the first to develop a series of works.[9] Centuries later, Rembrandt produced a great number.[10] Rare is the artist, these days, who has not been seduced by self-representation. Self-portraiture has become very common.[11]
The concepts of self-portraiture and self-portrait should not be confused. Categorization is the process by which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and classified, and consists of organizing the objects of a given universe into groups or categories, with a specific purpose. It is a fundamental mechanism for reason, communication, and cognition.[12] This is, by the way, because the term "selfie" only appears in the 1980s.
Self-portraiture has a long history. In Reynolds & Peter's analysis, the handprints that prehistoric humanity left in cave paintings can be considered precursors of the self-portrait, as they are a direct document of the author's presence in the creative act and his perception of the existence of a "self". The self-portrait showing the artist's face or entire body appeared much later, with documented examples in Ancient Egypt and Classical Antiquity.[13]
In the Middle Ages the practice began to gain momentum, following the growing appreciation of the question of authorship in the study of artistic works, and an appreciable number of self-portraits of scribes and copyists illuminate their books and parchments, mostly anonymous, survive.[14]
Throughout the Renaissance, with the humanistic valorization of the individual, the interest in personal representation experienced an explosive growth, with particular emphasis on the author himself, both in the visual arts and in literature. According to Teresa Ferreira.[15]
The advent of new technologies today, especially since the 1980s, has had an extraordinary impact on the practice of self-portraiture. Selfies, photographic self-portraits, have become common around the world.
For a long time, self-portraits were included as small details in larger works, usually works of a religious nature, but from the Renaissance onwards they began to appear in a more striking way, to soon gain full independence in autonomous works.[16]
Attention to self-portraiture is recent in the History of Art, although there are very old collections such as that of the Uffizi Gallery, in Florence, exhibited in the Vasari Corridor, the largest pictorial collection of self-portraits.
Self-portraiture as a theoretical field attempts to answer several questions in modern times, from the most basic: what is a self-portrait? Or, why over the centuries has the number and quantity of works dedicated to it grown? Or why selfies have become a global phenomenon? It is also the object of his interest to analyze the relationship between self-representation and reality, since self-portraits often do not aim at the mere faithful reproduction of objectively identifiable traits, but, being intentional constructions, they can be allegorical, idealizing, critical, symbolic, psychological, satirical, philosophical, reflective.[17]
The self-portrature as an academic study only emerged in the twentieth century. In fact, it was with the monograph of Ernst Benkard (1927)[18] and, later, that of Ludwig Goldscheider (1936)[19] that studies of the subject gained momentum. Benkard features 500 images and Goldscheider 263. But they don't do any further analysis. It was only in 1955 with Michelangelo Masciotta that an in-depth reflection of self-portraiture appeared.[20]
Very rare, in this period, works such as that undertaken by Erwin Panofsky in analyzing Allegory of Prudence of Titian. The renowned historian, in 1926, recognizes the painter's face when comparing certain characters present in the work as an unequivocal self-portrait of the artist, and makes an analysis.[21]
Researchers still investigate self-portraits because they unfold many aspects of the artist's personal life and perception of himself and his relationships with his social environment, his peers, his time, culture and history, question artistic language, communication, poetics and style (visual or literary), and intertwine the public and the private. Personhood and impersonality, being intertextual and polysemic works.[22] Another focus of the research is to analyze the changes in the understanding of the meaning of the self-portrait over the centuries and its reception.[23]
Photographic self-portraiture
The origins of photography date back to the discoveries of the camera obscura. The development and popularity of the technique, however, only occurred after the daguerreotype. From the 19th century to the 21st century there was a great development of devices capable of producing photographs.
Currently, almost everyone has the possibility of having a portable device capable of producing a photography. This does not explain, however, why so many chose to produce and share a self-portrait on social media.[24]
Photographic self-portraits by Andy Warhol[25] and Cindy Sherman[26] are most recognized. On the other hand, there are millions of self-portraits produced by unrecognized characters in the field of art who, no matter how brilliant they are, do not enter the History of Art.
It's not something to be surprised about. Before this time it was not possible for artists to use this resource.
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, known mononymously as Michelangelo, was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was inspired by models from classical antiquity and had a lasting influence on Western art. Michelangelo's creative abilities and mastery in a range of artistic arenas define him as an archetypal Renaissance man, along with his rival and elder contemporary, Leonardo da Vinci. Given the sheer volume of surviving correspondence, sketches, and reminiscences, Michelangelo is one of the best-documented artists of the 16th century. He was lauded by contemporary biographers as the most accomplished artist of his era.
Sofonisba Anguissola, also known as Sophonisba Angussola or Sophonisba Anguisciola, was an Italian Renaissance painter born in Cremona to a relatively poor noble family. She received a well-rounded education that included the fine arts, and her apprenticeship with local painters set a precedent for women to be accepted as students of art. As a young woman, Anguissola traveled to Rome where she was introduced to Michelangelo, who immediately recognized her talent, and to Milan, where she painted the Duke of Alba. The Spanish queen, Elizabeth of Valois, was a keen amateur painter and in 1559 Anguissola was recruited to go to Madrid as her tutor, with the rank of lady-in-waiting. She later became an official court painter to the king, Philip II, and adapted her style to the more formal requirements of official portraits for the Spanish court. After the queen's death, Philip helped arrange an aristocratic marriage for her. She moved to Sicily, and later Pisa and Genoa, where she continued to practice as a leading portrait painter.
The Uffizi Gallery is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums and the most visited, it is also one of the largest and best-known in the world and holds a collection of priceless works, particularly from the period of the Italian Renaissance.
Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione is a c. 1514–1515 oil painting attributed to the Italian High Renaissance painter Raphael. Considered one of the great portraits of the Renaissance, it has an enduring influence. It depicts Raphael's friend, the diplomat and humanist Baldassare Castiglione, who is considered a quintessential example of the High Renaissance gentleman.
Portrait painting is a genre in painting, where the intent is to represent a specific human subject. The term 'portrait painting' can also describe the actual painted portrait. Portraitists may create their work by commission, for public and private persons, or they may be inspired by admiration or affection for the subject. Portraits often serve as important state and family records, as well as remembrances.
Dutch Golden Age painting is the painting of the Dutch Golden Age, a period in Dutch history roughly spanning the 17th century, during and after the later part of the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) for Dutch independence.
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker, and draughtsman. He is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in the history of art. It is estimated Rembrandt produced a total of about three hundred paintings, three hundred etchings, and two thousand drawings.
A self-portrait is a portrait of an artist made by themselves. Although self-portraits have been made since the earliest times, the practice of self-portraiture only gaining momentum in the Early Renaissance in the mid-15th century that artists can be frequently identified depicting themselves as either the main subject, or as important characters in their work. With better and cheaper mirrors, and the advent of the panel portrait, many painters, sculptors and printmakers tried some form of self-portraiture. Portrait of a Man in a Turban by Jan van Eyck of 1433 may well be the earliest known panel self-portrait. He painted a separate portrait of his wife, and he belonged to the social group that had begun to commission portraits, already more common among wealthy Netherlanders than south of the Alps. The genre is venerable, but not until the Renaissance, with increased wealth and interest in the individual as a subject, did it become truly popular.
The Portrait of Smeralda Brandini is a tempera on panel painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli of about 1475, in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Grand manner refers to an idealized aesthetic style derived from classicism and the art of the High Renaissance. In the eighteenth century, British artists and connoisseurs used the term to describe paintings that incorporated visual metaphors in order to suggest noble qualities. It was Sir Joshua Reynolds who gave currency to the term through his Discourses on Art, a series of lectures presented at the Royal Academy from 1769 to 1790, in which he contended that painters should perceive their subjects through generalization and idealization, rather than by the careful copy of nature. Reynolds never actually uses the phrase, referring instead to the "great style" or "grand style", in reference to history painting:
Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee is a 1633 oil-on-canvas painting by the Dutch Golden Age painter Rembrandt van Rijn. It is classified as a history painting and is among the largest and earliest of Rembrandt's works. It was purchased by Bernard Berenson for Isabella Stewart Gardner in 1869 and was displayed at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston before its theft in 1990; it remains missing. The painting depicts the biblical event in which Jesus calmed the storm on the Sea of Galilee, as is described in the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Mark. It is Rembrandt's only seascape.
The dozens of self-portraits by Rembrandt were an important part of his oeuvre. Rembrandt created approaching one hundred self-portraits including over forty paintings, thirty-one etchings and about seven drawings; some remain uncertain as to the identity of either the subject or the artist, or the definition of a portrait.
A selfie is a self-portrait photograph or a short video, typically taken with an electronic camera or smartphone. The camera would be usually held at arm's length or supported by a selfie stick instead of being controlled with a self-timer or remote. The concept of shooting oneself while viewing their own image in the camera's LCD monitor is also known as self-recording.
Self-Portrait at Seventy-Eight is an 1858 oil-on-canvas painting by the French Neoclassical artist Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. It is one of the last of his many portraits, which he had always regarded as bothersome distractions from his true calling, history painting. The painting measures 24 3/8 x 20 1/8 inches and is in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence.
Pascal Bonafoux is a French writer, novelist, art critic and art historian, a specialist in self-portraiture. He collaborates with various newspapers and magazines, he is the author of numerous essays dedicated to art and was a resident at the French Academy in Rome. He is professor of art history at Paris 8 University, and is also a curator who organises exhibitions either in France or abroad.
Judith Slaying Holofernes c. 1620, now at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, is the renowned painting by Baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi depicting the assassination of Holofernes from the apocryphal Book of Judith. When compared to her earlier interpretation from Naples c. 1612, there are subtle but marked improvements to the composition and detailed elements of the work. These differences display the skill of a cultivated Baroque painter, with the adept use of chiaroscuro and realism to express the violent tension between Judith, Abra, and the dying Holofernes.
Rembrandt Laughing is a c. 1628 oil on copper painting by the Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn. It is an elaborate study of a laughing face, a tronie, and, since it represents the painter himself, one of over 40 self-portraits by Rembrandt, probably the earliest elaborate one. The painting, which was only recently discovered, is now in the J. Paul Getty Museum, California.
Tomáš Kubík is a Czech painter. He is graduate of the Studio of Classical Painting Techniques of Prof. Zdeněk Beran at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. Formerly, he was also active in dance and movement theatre, played the flute and worked as a teacher at a private painting school he co-founded.
Ana Peraica is a Croatian-born photography theorist and Ghetto activist, whose work is focused on post-digital photography. Born to a family of professional photographers, her grandfather Antonio Peraica was a war reporter and filmmaker and her father a photographer of architecture. Peraica is focused on constant changes of the medium, bringing focus to its rational, scientific implementations, but also irrational horrors.
References
↑ Bourdieu, Pierre. Rules of Art: Genesis and Structure of the Literary Field Stanford: SUP (1996)". p. 47-49
↑ Reynolds, Anna & Peter, Lucy. "Producing and collecting portraits of artists". In: Reynolds, Anna; Peter, Lucy; Clayton, Martin (eds.). Portrait of the Artist. Royal Collection Trust, 2016, pp. 9-12
↑ Reynolds, Anna & Peter, Lucy. "Producing and collecting portraits of artists". In: Reynolds, Anna; Peter, Lucy; Clayton, Martin (eds.). Portrait of the Artist. Royal Collection Trust, 2016, pp. 9-12
↑ Ferreira, Teresa Pinto da Rocha Jorge. Autorretratos na Poesia Portuguesa do Século XX. Doutorado. Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2019, pp. 23-27 (in portuguese)
↑ Enenkel, Karl & Liebregts, Peter. "Introduction". In: Enenkel, Karl; Jong-Crane, Betsy de; Liebregts, Peter (eds.). Modelling the Individual. Biography and Portrait in the Renaissance. Rodopi, 1998, pp. 1-10
↑ Rangel, Cláudio. Por uma História da Autorretratística no Brasil. Niterói: Unilasalle, 2004. (in portuguese)
↑ Goldscheider, Ludwig. Five Hundred Self Portraits from Antique Times to the Present Day in Sculpture, Painting, Drawing and Engraving. Vienna; London Phaidon Press; George Allen & Unwin Ltd
↑ Masciotta, M.. Autorritratti dal XIV al XX Seculo. Milan, 1955
↑ Panofsky, Erwin. Meanig in the Visual Arts. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982
↑ Caro, M. A. The native as image: art history, nationalism, and decolonizing aesthetics. Thesis. Universiteit van Amsterdam, 2010, pp. 155-157
↑ Haifeng, Xuan. Modes of Painting in the Self-Portraits of Marlene Dumas. Master. University of the Witwatersrand, 2012, pp. 25-27
Bell, Julian. Five Hundred Self-Portrats. London: Phaidon Press, 1995
Bonafoux, Pascal et alii. Moi! Autoritratti del XX Secolo. Firenze: Galeria degli Uffizi, 2005
Bonafoux, Pascal et alii. Les Peintres et L'autoportrait. Genève: Skira, 1984.
Brooke, Xanthe. Face to Face: Tree Centuries of Artists' Self-Portrature. Liverpool: National Museums & Galleries on Merseyside, 1994
Meskimmon, Marsha. The Art of Reflection: Women Artists' Self-Portraiture in the Twentieh Century. London: Columbia University Press, 1996
Masciotta, M.. Autorritratti dal XIV al XX Seculo. Electa Editrice, Milano, 1955.
Koerner, Joseph. The Moment of Self-Portraiture in German Renaissance Art. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996
Woods-Marsden, Joanna. Renaissance Self-Portraiture. The Visual Construction of Identity and Social Status os the Artist. Los Angeles: Yale University Press, 1998
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
