Artist Self Portraits

Warum zeigt Dürer im Münchner Selbstporträt mit seiner Hand auf den Marderpelz? Auf der Suche nach einer Antwort auf diese Frage geht die vorliegende Untersuchung der Bedeutung der Kleidung in Dürers Selbstdarstellung nach. Der Blick auf weitere Bildzeugnisse der Epoche sowie zeitgenössische Schriftquellen wie Kleidervorschriften und Luxusgesetze eröffnet eine neue Sichtweise auf das berühmte Gemälde. Die Analyse des Bildes unter Heranziehung der Kleiderforschung führt nicht nur zu einer neuen Datierung des Selbstporträts, sondern auch zu einer innovativen Deutung im Kontext rechtshistorischer Zusammenhänge. Ein methodischer Ausblick auf eine Kunstgeschichte, welche die Kulturgeschichte der Kleidung als visuelles System der Zeichen und Symbole einbezieht, rundet den Band ab.

WONDER WOMEN: SOFONISBA ANGUISSOLA, LAVINIA FONTANA AND ARTEMISIA GENTILESCHI
A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF RENAISSANCE AND BAROQUE SELF-PORTRAIT PAINTING BY FEMALE ARTISTS

by Rosa Lena Reed Robinson

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of
Master of Arts in Art History at
Studio Art Centers International
Florence, Italy

2017


This  thesis is focused on the self-portrait painting practice by three female artists from the Renaissance and the Baroque periods: Sofonisba Anguissola, Lavinia Fontana, and Artemisia Gentileschi. Chapter I introduces the self-portrait as it developed specific to the Renaissance and in relation to a Greco-Roman classical ideal. The chapter focuses on Renaissance concepts of art and the very role of the artist. Chapter II studies the numerous self-portraits of Sofonisba Anguissola, the first great Renaissance female artist to have an international career. The artist’s self-portraits both became a foundation for those of later female artists and self-consciously expressed the new elite status achieved by this Lombard artist of noble lineage who worked as court portraitist for the Spanish monarchy. Chapter III examines the self-portraits and innovative identity self-portraiture of Lavinia Fontana of Bologna. It is demonstrated how her two early self-portraits built on the precedent established by Sofonisba, and yet, are of somewhat greater iconographic complexity. While in her maturity the artist developed self-portraiture into the identity self-portrait through the subject of Judith and Holofernes. Within her treatments of the theme in some examples she put herself into the figure of Judith and in others into Judith’s maid Abra. Lavinia Fontana’s final masterpiece, the improbable painting Minerva Dressing done at the end of her extensive career was likewise arguably an identity self-portrait. Minerva Dressing constitutes the first female fully nude figure painted by a female artist. Chapter IV focuses on Artemisia Gentileschi. This thesis designates the artist’s Pommersfelden Susanna and the Elders as both Artemisia’s first exact self-portrait and the first female full-length nude self-portrait painted by a female artist. The work is also an identity self-portrait. This chapter continues with a discussion of both versions of Artemisia’s infamous Judith and Holofernes (Capodimonte/Uffizi). Both works are arguably exact self-portrait paintings and identity self-portraits. Artemisia’s Allegory of Painting in London, often referred to as a self-portrait in scholarship, is suggested a perhaps better understood as an ideal identity self-portrait rather than a literal self-representation. The Allegory of Painting is considered together with other attributed self-portraits and portraits of the artist. A major theme in Chapter IV is the transition from literal self-representation to allegorical and ideal portrayal of the self. This thesis suggests that, as the artist’s career advanced, Artemisia Gentileschi did continue to paint both the exact and the ideal self-portrait. Finally, in the Conclusion, the legacy of the self-portraits of the Wonder Women, to adopt a phrase from Giorgio Vasari, is considered in reference to future female artists such as Elisabetta Sirani, Angelica Kauffmann, Elisabeth Vigée Le-Brun and Paula Modersohn-Becker.

A close reading of two paintings:

1. One poem draws on Escher’s Self Portrait lithograph by showing that the only way the  drawing avoids succumbing to infinite regress is by remaining incomplete.

2. The other poem responds to Magritte’s Key of Dreams: a surreal collection of object with mismatching nouns by teasing out relationships in a maneuver akin to dream interpretation.

International Gallerie Vol.13 No.2 2010 pg.52-55

ILUMINATING THE ALTAR: ARTISTS AND WORKSHOPS IN CATALAN PANEL PAINTING (1119-1150)

By Manuel Castiñeiras

In the Romanesque period it is clear that painting did not enjoy the same high status that was accorded to other luxury techniques, such as metalwork (goldsmith’s work) or embroidery. Nevertheless, at the beginning of the 12th century, in his On divers arts the monk Theophilus dignified the manual work involved in painting, stained-glass, metalwork, and mosaic because through this work the artist can participate in the mind of the Artifex Mundi (Divine Artist).  However, as Theophilus said, the craft must be executed for the honour of God, and not for human glory.  This claim to humility and anonymity conformed to the ideals of the Benedictine rule and to the clerical profile of the Romanesque painter.
Furthermore, the technique used by the early panel painters in Catalonia had more than obvious links with the practice of miniature painting, as described in the treatises of Eraclius or of the ‘monk’ Theophilus. Within this framework, it is possible to propose a curriculum vitae for the Romanesque painter, who might have gone through a progressive apprenticeship, starting with the practice of illumination, later of panel painting and ending with the production of mural paintings. This doesn’t mean our Romanesque painters were polyvalent artists; rather it suggests a long-term training before artists were entrusted with monumental paintings and were able to manage many different recipes.  It is very likely that the earliest masters of Catalan panel and mural painting worked under the aegis of the great ecclesiastical centres, such as the monastery of Ripoll or the Cathedrals of Vic or Urgell, which, being the repository of the necessary technical knowledge, oversaw their work and training

The mysterious kneeling figure carved on the east-facing side of the trumeau of the Pórtico de la Gloria has long been thought of as a self-portrait of Maestro Mateo - one in which he shows humility before God. This kind of depiction goes back to the earlier Middle Ages. It was common to depict the author, both artist and patron, within the work for which they were res- ponsible, as in the cases of Volvinius, Saint Dunstan, Abbot Suger or Guidetto. For it relates to one of the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit - the fear of the Lord - a quality that Theophilus tells us (De diversis artibus, III, preface) any artist should have. However, it is highly likely that Mateo was here also claiming status as an intellectual artist. The portrayal is extremely distinctive, in immortalizing Mateo as a scribe or author bearing a scroll. This particular choice, in which Mateo resembles his homonym - Mathew the Evangelist - should be seen in the context of Lacan’s concept of the symbolic.

La collezione di autoritratti d’artista presso gli Uffizi, che fu iniziata da Leopoldo de’ Medici probabilmente verso la metà del Seicento, già nel XVIII secolo era considerata la più grande del suo genere. Nonostante la sua fama e singolarità è rimasta in gran parte sconosciuta. Con un focus temporale sulla reggenza degli Asburgo vorrei evidenziare i criteri e i modelli in base ai quali la collezione degli autoritratti fu ampliata ed ordinata. Partendo da ciò, vorrei esaminare tramite alcuni esempi, come la libertà concessa agli artisti da parte dalla direzione della galleria per quanto riguarda le specifiche che un autoritratto doveva soddisfare per essere incluso nella collezione, così come la conoscenza della situazione espositiva prevista e una maggiore accessibilità dopo l'apertura del museo alla fine del XVIII secolo, si sia riflessa in invenzioni pittoriche particolarmente raffinate, mostrandosi per esempio in costumi insoliti, scegliendo inquadrature non comuni ecc.

Firenze, 28-29 gennaio 2021