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Self portraits were a Renaissance invention that took place in Italy in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Portraits of one's self had a relation to the social status of art and artists.
These portraits represented the aspirations of artists to change the status of art and their own social standing. To paint portraits of one's self meant increasing social recognition and position.
However, not all artists paint themselves for self -promotion. Vincent van Gogh created dozens of portraits of himself during the last years of his life because he couldn't afford to pay individual models to pose for portraits.
Raphael, the great Renaissance painter
Raphael is known as the genius of high Renaissance painters. He would paint realistic emotions and personality to his oil portraits. Raphael is thought to be one of the most detailed painters of all portraitists.
His portraits changed the art world and today Raphael paintings, prints and reproductions can be found worldwide.
Artists occasionally included portraits of themselves in their canvas endeavours.
They would disguise themselves behind foliage or paint themselves in a mirror.
Rembrandt as a self portrait artist
Rembrandt transformed self -portraiture into one of art's most personal expressions. Rembrandt depicted himself in eighty or more individual paintings and drawings.
His influence is seen in virtually every self -portrait made since. Edgar Degas clearly includes a Rembrandt image in his self -portrait.
Northern Renaissance artist Jan van Eyck hid small portraits of himself into his own paintings. In his painting, The Arnolfini Marriage, the mirror in the center of the back wall shows two figures entering the room. One of the figures is of van Eyck himself.
Verification that this is a self -portrait is by the inscription above the mirror, which translates to "Jan van Eyck was here".
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