The Artist with His Art
Almost all these hidden themes (few ever seen before) hark back to the idea that every painter paints himself. One of the most common is the depiction of the artist holding his or her art. Sometimes, especially in the Renaissance, the artist might represent himself as an executioner holding up the head of his victim (his “painting”) for us to see. This explains why the head of the victim is often a self-portrait. There is also an obvious pun in Italian on the word for masterpiece, capolavoro, which literally means head-work.{ref1} In other examples the artist might be in the foreground facing his “painting” which is the background painted in a different style. The two levels symbolize two different realities, the artist’s studio and the painting. In other cases, especially in the nineteenth century, the background may defy perspective, seemingly flat or vertical and thus indicating its existence in the studio as a flat, upright canvas.
1. Capolavoro was first used in Italian literature around 1700 though is likely to have been used in speech before then. A head separated from a body, though, could have been used to symbolize the artist's artwork long before then because the concept that all art is a depiction of the artist's mind was already widespread in the early Renaissance. Mind, of course, is an abstract idea long associated with the brain inside the head. See Grande Dizionario della Lingua Italiana, ed. Salvatore Battaglia, v.II (Turin: Unione Tipografico) 1961, p.708
All Articles (Alphabetical by Artist, then Title)
How painters can imagine themselves as violinists and other musical performers
Leyster’s Self-portrait at the Easel (c.1630)
Even in the late Middle Ages altarpieces were depictions of the artist's own mind
Lianori’s Bologna Polyptych (1453)
More evidence that even at a very early date Lichtenstein was on the path of the Old Masters
Lichtenstein’s Mail-Order Foot (1961)
Ordinary subjects produce extraordinary content
Lichtenstein’s Untitled or Man with Chest Expander (c.1961)
Learn how "every painter paints" himself makes logical sense of even the most confused compositions
Lotto’s Virgin and Child with Saints Roch and Sebastian (c.1522)
See how Le Dejeuner sur L’Herbe, Manet's first great masterpiece, which has always puzzled and fascinated its viewers makes sense after all.
Manet’s Le Dejeuner sur l’Herbe (1863)
This early painting by Manet has always troubled interpreters because it seems to make no apparent sense. Its explanation here, though, will help you understand paintings by Manet, Velazquez and other artists too.
Manet’s Mlle. V in the Costume of an Espada (1862)
See how Manet identifies with a female artist of his own acquaintance, probably without her even knowing
Manet’s Before the Mirror (1876)
Everyone knows that Boating is a masterpiece. Why is it so difficult to explain?
Manet’s Boating (1874)
Find out how the viewer in this garden scene is really inside Manet's mind
Manet’s Monet Family in the Garden (1874)
Skating on ice is like drawing lines on the mirrored surface of the artist's mind
Manet’s Skating (1877)
How an unfinished painting is finished and how a horse becomes an easel
Manet’s The Horsewoman (1875)
Once you know what to look for, Manet's tricks are obvious
Manet’s The Races in the Bois de Boulogne (1872)
See how smoke and mirrors turn the outside of Manet's studio into the inside
Manet’s The Railway (1873)
Discover how Manet's backgrounds are often "paintings"
Manet’s View of the Universal Exhibition (1867)
An early example of how Manet turns a modern woman, and his future wife, into an artist
Manet’s Woman with a Jug (1858-60)
Joseph, worth only a cameo appearance in the Bible, is a major star in visual art. Cast as a narcoleptic, he falls asleep in one image after another without any art historian, to my knowledge, pausing to ask: Why does he sleep so much?
Mantegna’s Adoration of the Shepherds (c.1450-51)
See how Mantegna like many other masters uses the Execution of St Sebastian to convey the idea that 'every painter paints himself.'
Mantegna’s Saint Sebastian (1480)
An early example of how art is a guide to what we now call "self-knowledge".
Matthew Paris’ Virgin and Child with Artist Kneeling (c.1250)
Arrows in art are often "brushes", especially with inconsistencies on the literal level
Memling’s Martyrdom of St. Sebastian (c.1475)
A mysterious drawing that has never made sense is now explained simply
Michelangelo’s Archers Shooting at a Herm (c.1530) Part 1
Michelangelo's last Pieta, left unfinished at his death but intended for his tomb, helps us make sense of his more famous version carved when he was a young man.
Michelangelo’s Florentine Pieta (1547-53)
See why Jonah is the most important figure in the chapel
Michelangelo’s Sistine Ceiling: Jonah (1512)
See how Michelangelo continued tradition while he changed it
Michelangelo’s Study for a Bronze David (c.1502-03)
Michelangelo's first great masterpiece is widely misunderstood. Like art in general, it is an expression of the creative moment.
Michelangelo’s Vatican Pieta (1498-99)
Keeping alert to differences in style within a painting can help unlock its meaning
Parmigianino’s Allegorical Portrait of Emperor Charles V (1529-30)
Peale's American portraits have more in common with great European art than is generally accepted.
Peale’s Portrait of George Washington (c.1780)
Learn how the young Picasso played around with several themes in a relatively simple composition
Picasso’s La Toilette (1906)
There is always more in Picasso than meets the eye
Picasso’s Reclining Nude with Man and Bird (1971)
Learn how Picasso used swords as "paintbrushes", "etching needles" and other tools of the trade
Picasso’s Swords and Knives
Hear how Karen Kleinfelder interprets Picasso's scene
Picasso’s Untitled Plate 58 from Suite 156 (1971)
Don't accept your first understanding of a line. Think again; because artists do before drawing it.
Picasso’s Women on the Beach (1947)
A resurrection by its very name suggests two realities: the old and the new, the illusory and the real.
Piero della Francesca’s Resurrection (c.1458)
Sometimes the most difficult features to see in art are the most obvious
Raphael’s Sistine Madonna, Part 1 (1512)
How Rembrandt used gold chains as a symbol of the high honor due to him as a great master
Rembrandt and the Artist’s Gold Chain
See how Rembrandt turned an anatomy lesson into a scene in his studio (in his mind).
Rembrandt’s Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp (1632)
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