Artist’s Mind
All true art is literally a mirror of the artist’s mind, a reflection of the artist's imagination at work. If you know that, and bear it in mind when looking at artworks, your eyes will be alert for the visual details that convey it. If not, your perception will fall victim to the everyday illusion of exterior reality, whether examining an image of the Nativity, a portrait of Napoleon or a view inside Matisse’s studio.
Some scholars have identified artistic production as the true subject of a seemingly quite different scene but such occasions are rare.{ref1} Most are so convinced that past art was designed for the patron that they look at art through the eyes of a contemporary spectator: as though through a window. They are literalists. Yet to poetic painters the canvas is never “a window” but “a mirror” and nothing is as it seems. We are not looking out, but in. Remember that, and doors will open that you never even knew were there. Take a look at these examples of how artists portray their own mind.
1. Ruvoldt, The Italian Renaissance Imagery of Inspiration (Cambridge University Press) 2004, pp. 114-5, 118
All Articles (Alphabetical by Artist, then Title)
Sometimes the most difficult features to see in art are the most obvious
Raphael’s Sistine Madonna, Part 1 (1512)
Still-lifes by great artists may seem simple or devoid of meaning, especially when compared to figure paintings, but they rarely are either simple or meaningless.
Redon’s Pavots et Oeillets de Poète… (c.1906)
How the setting is so rarely what you think....you must think differently
Rembrandt’s Bathsheba at Her Bath (1643)
See the sight which changes the meaning of all Rembrandt's art: Rembrandt is Christ
Rembrandt’s Crucifixion (1631)
See how Joseph is an artist staring at his work of art inside the artist's head
Rembrandt’s Holy Family with a Cat (1654)
See how Rembrandt concisely expresses the underlying idea of art in a Roman myth
Rembrandt’s Lucretia (1666)
Find out why people pee on etchings
Rembrandt’s Man Making Water (1631) and Woman Making Water and Defecating (1631)
This painting which depicts Rembrandt crucifying Christ is an excellent example of the alternative way to read art, not viewing it as an illustration but as poetry.
Rembrandt’s Raising of the Cross (c.1633)
It can be difficult to explain why Rembrandt portrayed himself as a beggar. Here's what I think...
Rembrandt’s Self-portrait as A Beggar Seated on a Bank (1630)
Scholars have sometimes wondered why the young Rembrandt painted himself wearing a gorget, the metal collar worn by soldiers of the period, when he himself was never in the military.
Rembrandt’s Self-portrait with Gorget (c.1629)
If you didn't know that EPPH, you would never understand this image….nor would anyone else.
Rembrandt’s The Hog (1643)
The presence of a mystery in an artwork, intentionally made mysterious by the artist, does not mean that the mystery cannot be solved. Mysteries are made to be resolved.
Rembrandt’s Woman with the Arrow (1661)
An essential question about any picture: does the figure resemble an artist at work?
Rembrandt’s Young Woman Leaning Against a Door (1657)
How a Renaissance artist used an optical illusion to convey meaning
Remenschneider’s Three Helper Saints (c.1500-05)
Looking at how one great master copies another is a useful lesson in seeing the meaning in art
Rubens’ Copy of Caravaggio’s Entombment (1612-14)
See how Rubens' own face is veiled behind a drawing of a forest path
Rubens’ Forest Path (n.d.), a drawing
All art depicts the artist's mind. Here's one way you can see it.
Rubens’ Miracles of St. Ignatius of Loyola (c.1619)
Learn how a mythological scene represents the anatomy of the brain/mind
Rubens’ Perseus Freeing Andromeda (c. 1622)
In photographs taken with a macro lens, showing an object in extreme close-up, it can be difficult to recognize the subject. It is the same in painting. However, if you know it's a close-up, it's easier.
Schiele’s Bare Tree Behind a Fence (1912)
Don't take portraits at face value. If they're art, there's always more to them.
Schiele’s Portrait of a Lady in an Orange Hat (1910)
How even in the 15th century an artist thought of himself as Christ...and said so.
Schongauer’s Christ Carrying the Cross (c.1475)
In Martin Schongauer’s woodcut of St. George and the Dragon, the monster is an alter ego of the artist. Or, at least he represents an aspect of the artist’s mind.
Schongauer’s St. George and the Dragon (c.1480)
Look at art from every which way you can. You never know what you might see.
Signorelli’s Virgin & Child with John the Baptist and Donor (c.1491-4)
Evidence for art's self-referential allegory pre-dates the High Renaissance
Simone Martini’s St. Luke (c.1330’s) and other saints
Yet another visual illusion that has never been published.
Tiepolo’s Virgin Appearing to St. Catherine… (1748)
One of Titian's masterpieces, it was destroyed by fire in 1577 but recorded in this engraving. Its secret, though, lives on.
Titian’s Battle of Cadore (1538-9)
It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of how Renaissance artists identified with God. Both pervasive and unknown, the idea needs emphasizing to demonstrate its near-ubiquity. Here is yet one more example by Titian.
Titian’s Christ Blessing (c.1560)
Baudelaire's linking of Painting with cosmetics in the nineteenth century was not a novel idea, as long believed, but one with a very long history indeed
Titian’s Mary Magdalene(s) (c.1530-60)
Even in the remaining fragment of a much larger canvas there is still much to see
Titian’s Noli Me Tangere fragment (1553-4)
Train your visual memory to recall similar poses in quite different situations; they usually have some meaning in common
Titian’s Pieta (c.1575)
See how one artist identifies with another even if they are rivals
Titian’s Portrait of a Gentleman (c.1520)
A much-loved painting contains a marvelous self-portrait in the clouds
Titian’s Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple (1534-38)
Get to know what painters and sculptors look like at work - and their various processes - and your brain will penetrate the surface of a painting in no time. A painting like this one...
Titian’s Shepherd and Nymph (c.1575-6)
See how Titian tricks us into thinking there is one reality in art when there are, at least, two
Titian’s Woman with a Mirror (1512-15)
If a poet uses a storm as a metaphor, who mistakes it for a real storm? Why do so in art?
Turner’s The Shipwreck (1805)
The more you try to see what others can't, the more you'll see
Turner’s Undine Giving the Ring to Masaniello, Fisherman of Naples (c.1845-6)
Whatever the reasons for his style, Van Gogh made full use of the distortions
Van Gogh’s Church in Auvers-sur-Oise (1890)
Van Gogh is one of the few artists whose hidden elements revealed on EPPH confirm the conventional view of his art.
Van Gogh’s Cypresses with Two Female Figures (1889)
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