Self-portrait

A self-portrait or self-portrait is a self-representation of the physiognomy of a visual artist with the means of painting, graphics, sculpture or photography.

The first self-portraits is said to have existed in ancient times. The famous Greek sculptor Phidias is said to have shown approximately on the sign of his creation statue of Athena Partenos itself.

From medieval art hardly self-portraits have survived.

Since the Renaissance, however, has the self- conscious artist, who was no longer merely craftsmen, but to the philosophers, writers and scientists considered equivalent to the time, a monument to the self-portrait. In addition to the examination of his own physiognomy as ubiquitous and cheap model many self also bear witness to the inner conflict of the artist with himself, with his own changing moods and our own mortality.

Apart from the frequent use of mirrors and photographs as the working methods and forms of self-portraits correlate well with other portraits, such as portraiture, portrait photography or a portrait bust.

Selection of self-portraits

Leonardo da Vinci, Leonardo's self-portrait as an old man, red chalk, 1512

Peter Paul Rubens, Self-portrait with his wife Isabella, 1609

Rembrandt van Rijn, Self-Portrait, 1630

Rembrandt van Rijn, Self Portrait, 1655

Anton Graff, Self Portrait, 1765

Joseph Ducreux Self-Portrait ( yawn ), 1783

Élisabeth Vigée -Lebrun, Self Portrait, 1790

Ilya Repin, Self Portrait, 1878

Vincent van Gogh, Self- Portrait, 1886-1887

Paul Gauguin, Self-Portrait, 1893

Lovis Corinth, Self-Portrait with Skeleton, 1896

Pierre- Auguste Renoir, Self Portrait, 1910

Genco Gulan, Self Portrait, 2011

Augusto De Luca, Self Portrait, 2000