EBOOK
About
As I said in my first self-portraits book, copying master self-portraits gives the young or amateurish painter the illusion of knowing and painting like the masters themselves. It doesn't matter if the result in each case is superficial and plagiaristic. It gets the copier closer to the subjects copied and is a delightfully pleasant exercise. It may even improve the copier's technical ability.
In a general sense, merely looking at master painters' self-portraits is like meeting the masters. If the viewer is also copying the works it is like painting alongside the master in the master's own studio or workplace.
The first two self-portraits in this book are of Giotto and Benozzo Gozzoli, both borin in Florence, Italy, respectively in 1267 and 1420. At that time and place there was no such thing as a studio self-portrait. Most wall paintings were al fresco, done in churches or palaces and mostly Biblical subjects. Artists such as Giotto and Gozzoli painted themselves, if at all, in a crowd or procession. Later, as secular subjects dominated European art, Durer, Holbein and Rembrandt, among others, created or nourished a practice of self-portraiture that exists and continues to evolve today.
In a general sense, merely looking at master painters' self-portraits is like meeting the masters. If the viewer is also copying the works it is like painting alongside the master in the master's own studio or workplace.
The first two self-portraits in this book are of Giotto and Benozzo Gozzoli, both borin in Florence, Italy, respectively in 1267 and 1420. At that time and place there was no such thing as a studio self-portrait. Most wall paintings were al fresco, done in churches or palaces and mostly Biblical subjects. Artists such as Giotto and Gozzoli painted themselves, if at all, in a crowd or procession. Later, as secular subjects dominated European art, Durer, Holbein and Rembrandt, among others, created or nourished a practice of self-portraiture that exists and continues to evolve today.