Se “voir” pour se peindre… se peindre pour être vu : l'autoportrait

For an artist, the first model is oneself. Yet it was not until the 15th century, with artists such as Albrecht Dürer, that painters began depicting themselves frequently as the subject of their art. Self-portraits were nevertheless uncommon among the major painters of the Italian Renaissance. It was artists from the north who, in the 16th then more intensely in the 17th century, began unveiling part of their intimacy to the spectator in a distinctive art form, the self-portrait.