EPPH - Every Painter Paints Himself

Is self-representation self-centered?

(On vacation. A re-post from last summer)

The practical and philosophical issue of whether figures in art depict the artist or the apparent character is well expressed by two different translations of the same text in a Upanishad. The passage in question helps explain why art, though focused on the self, is not self-centered. The Upanishads are Vedic texts that represent the earliest emergence of the central religious concepts of both Buddhism and Hinduism and, for that matter Judaism, Islam and Christianity too, though too few realize it.

One translation goes like this:

He is this boy, He is that girl,  
He is this man, He is that woman,
and He is this old man, too, tottering on his staff.  
His face is everywhere.¹

Imagine here that the archetypal human being is present in everyone everywhere. In Christianity, the “He” of the text is known as God the Creator or Christ; in sculpture and painting, “He” would be the creator too. Artists, who are self-aware and in tune with humanity, recognize this and see their own inner perfection reflected everywhere. This concept - like the artist’s face itself - is, I believe, present in all true art, fused into the physiognomy of sitters, the actions of characters, the forms of nature and the design and symbolism of objects. 

Another translation, though seemingly different, has identical meaning: 

You are woman; you are man; 
you are boy and you are girl; 
you are the shivering old man helped by a stick; 
you are born in the form of this world.²

The repetitive identifications and last line of each version attempt to overcome the limitations of language which, in constructing a sentence, generally requires a subject and object. However, you are not just an observer or spectator of the world; you are the subject too. Indeed there is no independent subject or object; they are united. You are both subject and object of the “reality” you see whether it be a real landscape or art. In front of a picture, you are the subject of the painting and its viewer too. You not only reflect your thoughts onto everything you see but you were born perfect and still are, despite critical perceptions of yourself. Artists, even those who repetitively use an allegory based on the painter's studio, intend you to be their subject too. Like them, you were born a masterpiece. We are all the same, all containing the perfect human archetype, all united by creation with creation. This is not just philosophy but science too. A mosquito feeds its eggs on my blood; our bones grow with the milk of cows. Thus, everything turns into everything else. Your face is everywhere because you have inside you cosmic essence or star-dust (some call it divine perfection) and you are consequently united with all. It is not self-centered to see your perfection reflected in the world but self-denying because we all share that same perfection. We have no real, independent existence except in our confused ego-centric minds; in truth, as art tell us, we are all One. As is Art too.
 

1. Eknath Easwaran (trans.), Shvetashvatara Upanishad (Tomales, CA: Nilgiri Press) 1987

2. Sanderson Beck (trans.), Shvetashvatara Upanishad, http://www.san.beck.org/Upan7-Shveta.html. Retrieved June 25th, 2014.