self-portraiture

File:Las Meninas, by Diego Velázquez, from Prado in Google Earth.jpg}}, painted in 1656, shows Diego Velázquez working at the easel to the left.]]

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.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

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.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

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.Ferreira, Teresa Pinto da Rocha Jorge. Autorretratos na Poesia Portuguesa do Século XX. Doutorado. Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2019, pp. 23-27 (in portuguese)

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.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

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.

File:Sofonisba Anguissola, Selvportræt ved staffeliet, 1556, Museum Castle in Łańcut.jpg, Self-portrait, 1556, Lancut Museum, Poland]]

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.Rangel, Cláudio. Por uma História da Autorretratística no Brasil. Niterói: Unilasalle, 2004. (in portuguese)

The self-portrature as an academic study only emerged in the twentieth century. In fact, it was with the monograph of Ernst Benkard (1927)Benkard, Ernst. Das Selbstbildnis. Berlin, 1927 and, later, that of Ludwig Goldscheider (1936)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 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.Masciotta, M.. Autorritratti dal XIV al XX Seculo. Milan, 1955

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.Panofsky, Erwin. Meanig in the Visual Arts. Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1982

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.Caro, M. A. The native as image: art history, nationalism, and decolonizing aesthetics. Thesis. Universiteit van Amsterdam, 2010, pp. 155-157 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.Haifeng, Xuan. Modes of Painting in the Self-Portraits of Marlene Dumas. Master. University of the Witwatersrand, 2012, pp. 25-27

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.See: Selfie

Photographic self-portraits by Andy Warhol[https://www.christies.com/lot/lot-6128353/?intObjectID=6128353&lid=1&From=salesummery Andy Warhol (Christie's)] and Cindy Sherman[https://www.thecollector.com/cindy-sherman-self-portraits/ Lesso, Rosie. How Cindy Sherman Redefined Self-Portraiture (7 Artworks)]. The Collector. Access in 19/5/2024 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.

{{main article|Life writing}}

Self-portraiture in literature is mainly identified with Life Writing. Life Writing is indeed a broad and multifaceted genre that involves documenting personal experiences, thoughts, and emotions in a variety of forms. The boundaries of this genre have evolved over time, with debates on what exactly qualifies as life writing. Traditionally, it has been closely associated with autobiography, which is a formal, structured form of self-narrative, but the genre has expanded significantly.{{Cite journal |last1=Dowd |first1=M.M. |last2=Eckerle |first2=J. A. |date=2010 |title=Recent studies in early modern english life writing |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/43447684 |journal=English Literary Renaissance |volume=40 |issue=1 |pages=132–162|doi=10.1111/j.1475-6757.2009.01064.x |jstor=43447684 |s2cid=143970838 |url-access=subscription }}{{Cite journal |last=Gu |first=Y |date=2018 |title=Narrative, life writing, and healing: The therapeutic functions of storytelling |journal=Neohelicon: Acta Comparationis Litterarum Universarum |volume=45 |issue=2 |pages=479–489|doi=10.1007/s11059-018-0459-4 |s2cid=150341637 }}{{Cite book |last1=Smith |first1=Sidonie |title=Life Writing in the Long Run: A Smith & Watson Autobiography Studies Reader |last2=Watson |first2=Julia |publisher=Michigan Publishing |year=2017 |location=Ann Arbor, MI}}

In its modern conception, Life Writing includes various subgenres such as:

• Biography: The detailed description of a person’s life, usually written by someone else, which can offer an objective or interpretive perspective on the subject’s life.

• Memoir: A more intimate account, often focused on specific aspects or periods of the writer’s life.

• Diary: Typically more immediate and spontaneous, diaries capture day-to-day experiences and thoughts, often without an audience in mind.

• Letters: Personal correspondence that can serve as self-expression, with the added dynamic of being directed toward another person.

• Testimony: Usually focused on conveying experiences related to trauma, injustice, or significant historical events.

• Personal Essay: A reflective form of writing that often blurs the line between the personal and the philosophical or critical.

Self-portraiture initially emerged as a phenomenon within the History and Theory of art, as mentioned above. However, its spectrum, that is, its range of characteristics, properties and position, has been rapidly, in recent decades, expanding, spreading and being the subject of several other areas of knowledge,A consultation on Google Scholar highlights this phenomenon (check entry: self-portraiture) such as: Psychology, Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy;Alter-Müri, Simone B. [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0197455607000482 Beyond the face: Art therapy and self-portraiture]. In, The Arts in Psychotherapy. Volume 34, Issue 4, 2007, Pages 331-339, ISSN 0197-4556Judy A. Glaister,

[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0883941796800409 "Serial self-portrait: A technique to monitor changes in self-concept"]. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, Volume 10, Issue 5, 1996, Pages 311-318, ISSN 0883-9417 Philosophy;Fraquhar, Sue W. [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0883941796800409 Irony and the Ethics of Self-Portraiture in Montaigne's De la praesumption]. The Sixteenth Century Journal, Volume 26, NumbeAn Anthropology of " self ": pondering on the use of the self-portrait in contemporary photography.r 4. University of Chicago PressCaputo, Annalisa. [https://ricerca.uniba.it/handle/11586/209558 Interview and Introduction with J. Hall: Self-Portrait and Philosophy]. IRIS Institutional Research Information System, 2017Wood, Christopher S.[https://academic.oup.com/book/4734/chapter-abstract/146978163?redirectedFrom=fulltext Reflection IV Self-Portraiture], in Ursula Renz (ed.), Self-Knowledge: A History, OXFORD PHILOSOPHICAL CONCEPTS (New York, 2017; online edn, Oxford Academic, 16 Feb. 2017), https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190226411.003.0025, accessed 2 June 2024. Oxford Academic: 2017. Social Anthropology;Reinert, Leila.[https://www.academia.edu/34764415/An_Anthropology_of_self_pondering_on_the_use_of_the_self_portrait_in_contemporary_photography An Anthropology of " self ": pondering on the use of the self-portrait in contemporary photography] Sociology{{cite journal |last1=Mansoor |first1=Ahmadm |title=The Sociology of Selfies |journal=International Journal of Creative Research Thoughts |date=July 2020 |volume=8 |number=7 |url=https://www.academia.edu/89307378/The_Sociology_of_Selfies |via=Academia.edu }} and others.

Self-portraiture — or the systematic study of self-portrait in art — is today a well-established field within aesthetic, iconology, cultural history, gender studies, and theory of subjectivity. It is an area that not only investigates the production and circulation of images of the self by artists but also problematizes the ways in which such images are codified, interpreted, and re-signified over time.Hall, James. The Self-Portrait: A Cultural History. London: Thames & Hudson, 2014, p. 11.

Self-portraiture, as an artistic genre, emerges as a recognizable phenomenon around the fourteenth century, gaining notable intensity during the Renaissance, a moment in which the figure of the modern artist — endowed with individual consciousness and authorial status — begins to assert itself strongly in Western culture.Koerner, Joseph Leo. The Moment of Self-Portraiture in German Renaissance Art. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993. From then on, self-portraiture becomes not merely an exercise in representation but a gesture of identity assertion and agency. It articulates issues ranging from social recognition to metaphysical exploration of the subject.

Self-portraiture as a discipline thus aims to study the historical modes of artistic subjectivation, interrogating the cultural, material, and discursive contexts in which artists have produced images of themselves. This field analyzes, for example, the pictorial techniques used, the supports chosen (oil, drawing, photography, video), the mediating devices (mirrors, cameras, algorithms), and the discourses that frame such practices — whether confessional, symbolic, political, or fictional.Stoichita, Victor I. L’Instauration du tableau: Métapeinture à l’aube des temps modernes. Paris: Denoël, 1999.

Self-portraiture differs from traditional portraiture in that it establishes a fundamental duality between the subject and object of representation, between who sees and who is seen, between who creates and who is created. This duality configures the self-portrait as an intrinsically reflexive aesthetic form, close to what mughal miniatures in India to contemporary practices of performance and body art in African, Latin American, and Asian diasporas.Belting, Hans. Faces: Eine Geschichte des Gesichts. Munich: C.H. Beck, 2013, pp. 196–215. Such decolonial approaches challenge the Eurocentric paradigms that defined self-portraiture as the privilege of Renaissance and bourgeois subjectivity.

Another axis of contemporary self-portraiture studies is the reception and public circulation of self-portraits, especially in the context of digital media. The aesthetics of self-portraiture take on new configurations in social networks, in selfie practices, in online [performance]]s, and in algorithmic reconfigurations of the face. The field thus expands to incorporate elements of visual culture, media archaeology, and digital anthropology.Senft, Theresa M.; Baym, Nancy. “What Does the Selfie Say? Investigating a Global Phenomenon”. International Journal of Communication, vol. 9, 2015, pp. 1588–1606.

Finally, self-portraiture is deeply intertwined with gender studies and identity studies, as it offers a privileged terrain to explore how historically marginalized subjects — women, LGBTQIA+ artists, racialized individuals — negotiate their visibility and authority through self-representation.

The self-portrait, in this sense, becomes also a political act of reinscribing the self in the symbolic spaces of art and history.Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. London: Thames & Hudson, 2020, pp. 243–270.

Self-portraiture is thus a field in permanent reinvention, where the questions surrounding the “self” and its image — its time, its mask, its truth, and its fiction — continue to resonate with theoretical, critical, and poetic force.

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• List of self-portraits in the Uffizi Gallery
• Portrait
• Portrait painting
• Female self-portrait in painting
• Self-portraits by Rembrandt
• Selfie
• Self-portrait
• The Portrait Now
• Triple Self-Portrait – 1960 oil painting by Norman Rockwell

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{{reflist}}

• 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
• {{cite book | first = Duncan | last = Thomson | title=The Oxford Companion to Western Art | publisher=Oxford University Press | date=2001-01-01 | isbn=978-0-19-866203-7 | chapter = self-portraiture | doi=10.1093/acref/9780198662037.001.0001 }}

Category:Portrait art

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