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Self-Portrait

Artists utilize self portraiture to convey multiple meanings, including their definition of themselves, sharing their scope with their audience, or their reflection on current issues, and providing a historical documents through their art. We’ve seen countless portraits by famous artists including Van Gogh, Diego Velasquez, Jan Van Eyk, Frida Kahlo, Picasso, and even Andy Warhol. Although self-portraiture can be assumed to have emerged in the era of Individualism during the early Renaissance when the artist was reconstructing his status as an artist. The earliest self-portrait can be traced as early as ancient Egypt. Self-portraits reflect several important interpretations of both the artist and the society revolving around that era. For example, Diego Velasquez’ Las Meninas portrays the artists’ beginning to identify himself as an artist rather than by his art. Self-portraits are also a staple for a mirror of self-perception. While self-portraits in photography can be a realistic representation of the artist, self-portraits in painting offer a broader way of “interpretation of the artists’ way of seeing” himself. Van Gogh is famous for producing self-portraits that are distorted. It is not to say that Gogh was hoping to convey that he thought of himself as displeasing physically but rather draws from an inner psychological distortion of his sense of self and self-worth as we know he severely struggled with depression. Artists also use self-portraits to make known “their own capacities for intellectual reflection.” Sofonisba Anguissola does this in her self-portrait called Autoportrait, 1554, providing her signature in a book faced open: Sofonisba Anguissola virgo seipsam fecit anno 1554. Additionally, self-portraits have long been considered forms of the artists’ signature.

Female Portraiture

Women portraiture is famous for representing the beauty ideals of a certain time, the male gaze, and social status. This was prominent among Italian painters especially in the Renaissance era. Painters typically only reconstructed the beautiful aspects of a woman. That is why many of the female portraits during the Renaissance all look of a similar composition from one woman to another with an ideal height, weight, tone of skin, and gracefulness. Consider the woman in the painting not a real representation of the woman who is being painted but rather an idealized construction of what a woman should be with the best features of each one taken and painted on one canvas repeatedly. The desired physical aesthetics consisted of “a high, round forehead, plucked eyebrows, blond hair, fair skin, rosy cheeks, ruby lips, white teeth, dark eyes, and graceful hands.” That is why profile female portraiture was emphasized. Attractive physical traits were also tied to moral qualities that a woman possessed. This was due in part to the belief during the Italian Renaissance that women who were ideally attractive also had high morality. In female portraiture, the female was the main subject [well at least the main idea] though she remained objective by both the artist and the spectator. The main role of the woman in female portraiture during the Italian Renaissance was to serve as a tool to “display wealth and lineage.” During the Italian Renaissance, women solely relied on marriage and motherhood for status and this was portrayed through female portraits. It was apparent that "publicity was necessary to legitimize marriage during this time period and men wished to display wealth and prestige." Although it wasn't common for women to be depicted in the Italian Renaissance, we can see that there are numerous female portraits in the Italian Renaissance and this is because men remarried often due to women’s short lifespan.