However, the vast, vast majority of them are decidedly unfunny. According to the results of the X-ray analysis the left Rembrandt’s. On the other side of the coin, there are also literally thousands of self-portraits by famous artists (Rembrandt, van Gogh, and Warhol nearly made a career of them). The pose in the self portrait of 1640 resembles a self portrait done by Durer and Titian: the right hand is on a balustrade. A quick review of the Internet reveals that their are literally thousands of very clever, often quite humorous artist self-portraits, though most of them are by "artists" of whom nobody has ever heard, so despite their humor.who cares. I've done one or two, which I won't display here in that I've already shown them in earlier posts. Never is an artist more revealing of their own self-image that when these two elements meet-when an artist is blessed with sufficient self-confidence to create a funny, often self-deprecating self-portrait. Also, most artists have, at one time or another, painted or drawn at least one self-portrait. Actually, most artist have one, though often they take their art so seriously that they're reluctant to display it. We embrace God, in whose images we are made, not initially because we recognize him as our creator but because we see his face as a reflection of our own, which we love above all else.I love an artist with a sense of humor. “Self-love and love of God exist in an uneasy symbiosis in pre-Reformation piety,” wrote Joseph Leo Koerner in his book The Moment of Self-Portraiture in German Renaissance Art, “Nicholas of Cusa, we recall, regards narcissism as the starting point for devotion. Thus, in the 1940s, famed art historian Erwin Panofsky asked the question that continues to plague historians today: “ How could so pious and humble an artist as Dürer resort to a procedure which less religious men would have considered blasphemous?”īut while that might seem arrogant, in the artist’s own time, a reverence for self was, in fact, perceived as the way to Christ. Short of funds but determined nevertheless to hone his skills as a.
Such devices certainly suggest Dürer claiming that he was an art god. Van Gogh produced more than twenty self-portraits during his Parisian sojourn (188688). Veronica’s veil after she dried his brow on the road to Golgotha. Van Eyck’s now-lost panel links back to religious icons that seek to recreate the Biblical “true image” of Christ-that which was believed to miraculously appeared on St. The artist, Gustave Courbet, is shown in this 1845 picture with a stressed-out expression that seems to be riveted on the observer. Until this time, fully frontal half-length portraits of the kind in the 1500 Self-Portrait had been reserved almost exclusively for depictions of Christ.Ĭopy after Van Eyck’s Vera Icon (1439). The Desperate Man Gustave Courbet Gustave Courbet’s self-portrait is one of the most renowned and iconic self-portraits ever produced.
While today it is believed to be a forgery, its description of Christ’s features had great influence on how he was imagined-and Dürer’s long-haired, bearded, youthful features match Lentulus’s account.īut is this just coincidence? Even more than the self-portrait’s features, it’s the composition that really hammers the association home. The epistle had first been published in the 1400s. In Dürer’s lifetime, it should be noted, it was believed that there had been a (now-debunked) eye-witness account of Jesus found in the “Letter of Lentulus,” written by Roman official Lentulus, a purported contemporary of Jesus. Part of this painting’s fame comes from a seeming provocation: Dürer has depicted himself with a striking resemblance to Jesus Christ (or at least, to the figure of Christ as known through art history). Here are three facts about Self-Portrait (1500) that might change the way you see Dürer’s painting-and the art of self-portraiture in general.ġ) Yes, Dürer Depicts Himself as a God-But Not (Totally) Out of Arrogance Those of Rembrandt are particularly famous. The image is widely regarded as one of the most influential self-portraits in history.Īs this week marks the 550th anniversary of Dürer’s birth on May 21, 1471, we decided to take a look at this infamous image. Artists self-portraits are an interesting sub-group of portraiture and can often be highly self-revelatory. Far and away the most well-known of any of these portraits is the last he painted, made at the age of 28, in 1500. He painted three self-portraits in this lifetime and completed several others as engravings and drawings (the first he made silverpoint at the age of 13). Albrecht Dürer, Self-Portrait at the Age of 13 (1484).