Self-Portrait in Renaissance Art: a Contrast between North and South - Essay Example

SELF PORTRAIT IN RENAISSANCE ART: A CONTRAST BETWEEN NORTH AND SOUTH Introduction The genre of self portrait is to a great extent an invention of Renaissance. It can be found in the art of Antiquity only in very seldom cases, and it has been hardly known to the Medieval art. An artist, who dared to depict himself, or even just to sign his creation by his own name risked to be accused with sin of pride. The most usual signature was a phrase Ad Gloriam (For God's glory). The situation has changed dramatically in the XV century with the development of ideas of Humanism and the beginning of the Renaissance epoch. In contrast to divine-centered art of Middle Ages, the new art style was human-centered, focused not only on the personality, being depicted, but also on the personality of an artist. Earlier art aimed to depersonalize a artist, making him only a guide for God-blessed inspiration, alternatively Renaissance made turned an artist, being just a handicraftsman before, into an active participant of the creative process. No wonder, that a new generation of artists, starting from about 1450 began to show interest not only to painting of others, but also to painting themselves. The pioneers of a new manner were Italians, who placed their images to the background and gave their faces to supporting characters of large paintings. Full-size self-painting has long been considered an inadmissible self-advertising. It was necessary to create some true and immortal masterpieces, to break the established stereotypes and make a self portrait an ordinary sort of painting. The aim of this paper is to examine and contrast the self portraits of two Renaissance titans - Albrecht Duerer and Raphael Santi. Self Portrait by Albrecht Duerer (1500) The famous self-portraits by Albrecht Duerer, and especially the one, painted in 1500, represent a culmination of self-depicting in Renaissance Northern Europe. The first impression, made by the portrait persuades a spectator, that it is Jesus Christ himself is painted on the picture. But soon a fur-coat, worn by a depicted person, makes a spectator doubt about his idea, and a subscript, clearly readable in the right corner of the composition indicates a person as Albrecht Duerer himself1. So, what made Duerer associate himself with a living god It is well known, that Duerer was a very egoistic and self-affected person. His earlier self portraits (1493, 1498) represent a young and handsome man. It is quite possible, that Duerer used to embellish his image. In particular, this concerns his 1493 self portrait, painted to represent a young artist to his bride, in which Duerer aspired to show himself as a strong and potential male. His another self portrait, known as Self Portrait of Prado, seems to be painted just to make everybody admire with Duerers magnificent blond hair, which he was very proud of. His another self-portrait, finished in 1502 is much more unvarnished and even advertising; the artist's torso is naked, and his look appears to be licentious. Duerer's attitude to depicting himself and bald erotism of his paintings occasioned the public to accuse Duerer with narcissism and even homosexual inclinations. A parody to his 1498 self portrait showed Duerer in hair-curlers2. All of the mentioned self portraits bear similar features. Great attention is paid to details making a spectator concentrate on the masterly painted details of clothes and body parts. The face of the artist seems to fall in middle distance, contrasted by his mighty shoulders and chests, accentuated by the pleats of his dress and outlines of his coat. Moreover - all the self portraits of Duerer, both painted before and after 1500 show the character in one-half turn with his right side to the onlooker. Duerers look is never direct, he looks skew, almost ready to turn his eyes away from the spectator. The 1500 self portrait is very much different. Duerer shape shows up clearly against a dark background. His calm, and at the same time penetrating look is pointed directly into spectator's eyes, establishing a short distance between Duerer and a person, studying the portrait. Duerer's pride, his thick splendid hair look like nebulous spots of diluted light, surrounding his expansive forehead, which is not covered with a cap or hat, so as it happens on his other portraits. Duerer is wearing a fur-coat, covering his mighty muscles, usually so favored by him, and this fur-coat does not side-track onlookers attention from Duerers face. The only dynamic detail on in this very static painting is characters hand, touching fur. The gesture is both elegant and neurotic, the depicted person seems to be trying to cover his disturbance and uneasiness. The only very characteristic detail in this very uncharacteristic image is Duerers own signature, made with golden letters on the black background: "I, Albrecht Duerer of Nuremberg, have painted myself with sempiternal grains". The last outlining feature, marking this particular self portrait between the others, but which is less noticeable, is a comparative dullness of colors and obtuseness of light, falling from the left upper corner. Duerer depicted himself at the age of 28. He has already visited Italy to study the manner of local artists, and in 1500 he was under strong influence of Jacopo Barbari, an Italian painter, invited to Germany by emperor Maximilian I. Duerer has been deeply amazed by Barbari's manner to form compositions on the basis of strict proportions. Later Duerer said, that he "dreamt of learning his method more, than of a kingdom3". Desire for proportions, obtained from Barbari is reflected in 1500 self portrait more than in any other Duerer's masterpiece. The dimensions of the face are formed around a central vertical axis, passing from the hand, through a V-like fur collar, than crossing the chin and the nose and ending in the centre of the forehead. Duerer managed to gain an accurate transfer of a three-dimensional body into a planar field, transforming of the 'real' into the representational without loss of truth. To achieve that, he used an Italian method for drawing a subject according to the principle of linear perspective, which he was able to learn during his first journey to Italy4. Two horizontal axes can be found on the portrait. The lower one goes from one shoulder to the other and is formed by the hair tips. The above axis crosses the pupils. The crossing of the vertical axis and above horizontal axis is the natural centre of the whole composition. Using such exact dimensions, Duerer achieved eye contact between the character and the onlooker, so that the portrait seems to look after a spectator. At first sight, the portrait seems to be absolutely proportional. A closer look, however, makes a spectator notice, that the Duerer's eyes have different form and a little different size. In total, the portrait is obviously icon-like. Full face depiction of a person, looking directly at the spectator makes the picture similar to byzantian or even classical Russian icons, and this similarity is enhanced by a gesture, almost repeating the blessing gesture of the saints. It's necessary to take into account, that with all his egoism, Duerer remained a very religious person, so it would be hard to believe, that he is trying to make an icon of himself. Most of the researchers support Panofsky's idea, that the portrait is based on a written source - a tract by Saint Tomas of Campia "About Emulating Christ", which first compared a painter and a Creator5. So, the imperfect symmetry of the portrait may be symbolizing human imperfection and its incomparability with the divine entity. Duerer is often called the last German medieval painter and the first German Renaissance painter. And as any other of his contemporaries, Duerer considered Jesus Christ to be a new ideal of human being, so every Christian is able to resemble Christ and must aspire to do it. Until now, the word "Christ" in German means both "Jesus Christ" and "Christian". Thus, Duerer did nothing more, than just depicted himself as Christian. In representing himself as Christ, Durer not only undermined his own subjectivity, as an autonomous, self-meditative individual at a specific moment in history. By putting a round date 1500 he turned the portrait into a sort of benefit to eternity. Durer consciously asserted the unique status of the artist as a divinely gifted creator. The artist emerges as the architect of a new age, one who calls into being a new era of art. Duerer surely believed himself to be a genius, otherwise it would be hard to explain his often used signature "I Albrecht Durer, divinely inspired artist". But in this particular portrait more than himself he pictures an image of an ideal person of Renaissance epoch. Self Portraits by Raphael Santi Raphael is seldom associated with portrait paintings, being more known for his Madonnas and magnificent frescos. Nevertheless, being a person of Renaissance epoch, Raphael could not avoid a temptation to preserve his image for descendants. Just like Duerer, Raphael drew self portraits at different periods of his life and in different styles. This includes both full size portraits and self portraits within large paintings. Raphael was born in the artist's family, so his inclination to painting could be noticed and developed. Many of his teenage drafts survived to our times, but the first true self portrait, has been painted in 1506, when Raphael was 23. His early paintings were influenced by the manner of his teacher Petro Peruginio, however, already at the age of 17 Raphael has been included to the list of "Masters of Art" of Perugia, proving his original artistic talent. An image of a young man, presently exhibited in the Uffizi is considered by many art, historians to be a work from the Florentine period. The soft light which pervades the portrait certainly recalls Leonardo, but the restless and problematic elements which Leonardo's complex figurative research present are absent. The intense representation of the youth shows no sign of internal tension. On the contrary, it communicates a serene observation of reality through a pictorial rendering rich in synthetic capacity6. In contrast to Duerer's self portrait, drawn at the same age, Raphael pays much less attention to details, concentrating on the facial expression of the portrait. Mild light, which does not fall from any exact direction makes the lines vague. The background is painted with warm brown colors, shading the face. A head of young Raphael is half-turned to a spectator, as if he was turning around to somebody calling him, or having a last look before leaving. Raphael is far from using "sharp" style, inherent to Duerer. The face of a character seems to be "inserted" into a frame, formed by a black dress, dark hair and a black cap. This helps to attract spectators attention to young Raphael 's face and eyes without using precise dimensions. The picture does not bear any significant symbolic or ideological load, more likely it represents the inward of a pensive young artist, whom Raphael had actually been. With the beginning of Roman period of his work, Raphael starts specializing on grandiose paintings, such as The School of Athens or The Expulsion of Heliodorus. Drawing his famous coevals in the images of legendary characters becomes a sort of his brand. For example, in The School of Athens he depicted Leonardo da Vinci as Plato and Michelangelo - as Heraclites of Ephesus7. As for himself, Raphael depicted his own face looking out from behind someone's shoulder in the lower right corner, being in some way similar to Duerer, who used to paint a figure of himself at the same corner of large pictures. The face of Raphael in his years of maturity can be seen on his Self Portrait with a Friend (1519). On this picture Raphael stands behind the back of a person, identifies either as one of his students, or his friend Arientino. In contrast out his early portraits, Raphael has a beard and seems to be plumped out. His look, directed to a spectator is not so romantic as earlier, but calm and wise. A younger man is looking at Raphael with respect and devotion, pointing his hand to something and offering Raphael to go in that direction. Raphael, however, keeps a younger man by touching his shoulder. The whole painting is drawn in the unmistakable Raphael's manner. Just in all other his portraits and self portraits, he chooses sole-colored dark background. Black clothes of the characters melt into the background. White underwear shirts, appearing from under the dresses, help the artist to point the attention of the onlooker to the faces of Raphael and his friend. Those faces contrast with each other: younger man's face is enthusiastic, and Raphael seems to be reserved and bemused. He is depicted full-faced, but not so straightforwardly as Duerer on his self portrait. The portrait is less proportional, than Duerers one due to absence of central axis, but the face is more symmetric. It is easy to believe, that a younger man is after all Raphael's student. An artist looks like a father, trying to hinder his son from thoughtless step, and the younger man, in turn, is ready to risk to achieve something new, which is already inaccessible to his teacher. In general, the picture may be illustrating the generational change of masters of art and the will to discover new methods, kept back by the earlier experience. Conclusions Renaissance art is clearly divided into two general mainstreams - the Northern and the Southern Renaissance. The difference those mainstream can be noticed, among the other, in the genre of self portrait. The most favored mediums for Northern Renaissance are bold lines and shapes, and for the Southern Renaissance - the pallet. Both Duerer and Rafael are outstanding disciples and leaders of their own style of art. Duerers attention to details and careful drawing of every petty detail is contrasted by a genteel style of Raphael. In general, Duerer's works, and self portraits among them are realistic, and sometimes even much too naturalistic, painting the face with warts. Duerer achieves his aim by making a spectator believe, that a person on the picture is almost able to talk. Due to this exaggerated realism, some researchers believe, that Duerer's works are an important landmark on the way to photography8. In contrast, Raphael represents a romantic approach to depicting himself. His paintings always remain a little degraded and are not characterized by such clear shapes as Duerer's paintings. Raphael's point is not to transfer some hidden sense via line and shape, but to show the inward of his characters. Inasmuch the artistic aims of both geniuses are different, they use different artistic methods. REFERENCES 1. Beck J, 1994, "Masters of Art: Raphael", Harry N Abrams, London 2. Panofsky E. 1955, "The Life and Art of Albrecht Drer", Princeton University Press 3. Jones J, 2002, "Divine inspiration", The Guardian, Saturday November 30, 2002 4. Moxey K. 2004, "Impossible distance: past and present in the study of Durer and Grunewald", The Art Bulletin, Dec. 2004 5. www.sussex.ac.uk/Units/arthist/sharp/issues/0001/Papers_pdf/ChrisTownsend.pdf viewed August 14, 2005 6. http://gallery.euroweb.hu/html/r/raphael/2firenze/1/30selfpo.html viewed August 14, 2005 Read More