What is a self-portrait in art?

Throughout many centuries people have practiced and reached heights in the fine arts, transferring what they see and feel the soul to the stone and canvas. Statues of kings and rulers, people who lived in remote antiquity, engravings, painted walls, paintings, even rock carvings return us to the distant past and allow us to absorb the knowledge accumulated by millennia. Such works of art help scientists restore the history of our world, learn more about human psychology and its development.

Art as part of life

Human nature is prone to curiosity, often people are asked numerous questions about the types and genres of art. Many people want to learn new things, from how the art was born, to the answers to questions "what is a self-portrait?" And "how to create a sculpture?". But you should start small, finding answers gradually.

Types of fine arts

Among the types of artistic creativity distinguish:

• painting;
• Sculpture;
• Photo;
• Graphics;
• Arts and crafts.

Genres of Fine Arts

In each art form there are different genres, for example portrait, landscape or still life in painting. Among the genres also stand out and others: historical, symbolic, allegorical, mythological, everyday, battle (military), religious. All these types of art include numerous varieties, for example in the genre of landscape - marinistics, the image of the sea. The portrait assumes a large number of varieties: historical, religious, costume and self-portrait.

Self-portrait is a mystery of the portrait genre

Self-portrait is not only a genre of fine art. It is also available to musicians, writers, poets. Answering the question, what is a self-portrait in art, it is necessary to understand that the phenomenon of this genre is itself in the striving for self-knowledge, a view from one's own self. Practically in any activity, you can display your personality, which will relate the work to this genre. It is difficult to answer the question "what is a self-portrait?". The definition of this genre is not as unambiguous as it seems. The answer to such a simple, but at the same time complex issue lies in the search for the cause of this type of work.

Self-portrait is the image of the author himself. Contrary to the general opinion, this is not only a genre of painting, but also sculptures, graphics and photographs. Often the authors, depicting themselves on canvas or carving from stone, used a mirror, so it was before the advent and wide distribution of cameras. After that, it became easier to create a self-portrait, it was enough to capture yourself and work on photography. Some people decided not to go so far and the intermediate stage of photography was also turned into a kind of art.

What is a self-portrait?

Art critics for a long time were looking for and studying the answer to the question "what is a self-portrait?". The meaning of this term consists of two parts: "auto", which means "author", and "portrait" - the image of a person. Real artists always invest in their work, the soul, inspiration, strive to convey to the public not only the visual image, but the very thought and feeling. As it was said before, a self-portrait is a portrait in which artists and sculptures depict themselves. When a person draws himself, he tries to transfer to the material not only the appearance, facial features and the constitution of the body, he tries to present his own image to the person. It has long been known that we do not perceive our reflection in the way others see it from the outside. So the artist, and the sculptor, evaluating himself from another, more critical side, depicts himself the way he sees it. This fact makes it possible not only to enjoy the masterpieces of the most famous creative people, but also to evaluate the work from the psychological point of view.

Types of self-portrait in painting

In search of an answer to the question, what is a self-portrait in painting, let us turn to its varieties.

A plug-in self-portrait is a work in which the artist places himself in a group of people in the picture, often without playing a major role on it.

In the group, the artist also draws himself among several people, but they are relatives or friends, and the work itself is designed to preserve the moments of life in memory.

A symbolic self-portrait can be performed in a historical, mythological or costume genre . The author of the painting adds features of his face to the personage of history or mythology, or simply "dresses" himself in different clothes.

The natural self-portrait is the closest to the original. On it, the artist depicts himself alone in a home or work environment.

The natural self-portrait is also divided into several varieties:

• Professional - the artist depicts himself at work in the workshop.
• Personal - the transfer of the author to the picture of his state of mind, the desire to show not the appearance, but emotions.
• Erotic.

Psychology of self-portrait

Self-portrait is an artist's assessment of his personality. The first works of this genre date from 420 to the year BC, mention of them was found in the history of Ancient Greece and Egypt. But then the authors did not individualize themselves, they drew important historical events, and placed themselves on images as an integral part of history. Often this did not meet the understanding of the audience. So, the sculptor Phidias at one time portrayed himself among the participants in the "Battle of the Amazons," which, as the Greek philosopher Plutarch noted afterwards, was an extreme audacity. The most popular is the genre acquired in the Renaissance, but even then create an image of himself was considered eccentric, because such works at that time were considered narcissistic. Critics claimed that the authors perpetuated themselves for the sake of glory.

Creative personality thinks differently, so it will be true to say that from the psychological point of view, the artist or sculptor is different from the rest. In history there were artists who suffered from neurological and mental illnesses. Self-portraits that were made by them, are still studying in the search for the solution of the mystery of the person.

In the ancient art, these works were not given much importance, but in the following centuries the goal of the artists was to be traced - to leave in memory not only their own image, but also personal impressions of those times. For example, when the greatest excitement in people was caused by religion, the authors considered it most appropriate to portray oneself in repentance, spiritual aspiration, prayer.

In the Renaissance, the heyday of culture, the work of famous masters began to acquire symbolic features. There appeared in their works a lot of drama and emotional experiences. Michelangelo gave the features of his face to the mask-skin removed from the sinner, and severed Goliath's head.

Most popular self-portraits

Surely many people come to mind the famous self-portraits of artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Van Gogh or Frida Kahlo. The history of fine art has hundreds of authors who left their memory in painting, writing their own portraits. Albrecht Durer became one of the first artists who chose the genre of self-portrait as central in their work. He wrote 50 paintings with his image. However, Frida Kahlo took from him the palm tree by the number of self-portraits created, on her account there are 55. Sometimes, the record-breakers for writing pictures with their own image include Rembrandt. His work of this genre is about 90 pieces. Most of them, however, are actually made by other artists, and some of the pictures are unimaginably small (the smallest of them is 17 by 20 cm).

Italian artists Giotto, Mazzacho and Botticelli included their own images in their works. It is even assumed that Leonardo da Vinci's famous painting "Mona Lisa" is also a self-portrait of a master, only in a female body.

Sculptural self-portraits do not amount to much, mostly their creation falls at the present time. One of the famous sculptors are Mark Quinn, who created a series of sculptures depicting the author, and Sergey Konenkov, whose work can be seen in the Tretyakov Gallery.

Self-portrait is not only the creation of oneself from stone or by transferring paints to canvas, but also the genre of photography. The most popular name of this genre is familiar to many - selfi or "picture of yourself", made with an outstretched hand or using a mirror.