Every Painter Paints Himself
Every painter paints himself, a saying first documented in the early Renaissance, has been mentioned by artists ever since. Both Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci used it, as Picasso did too; Lucian Freud and other contemporary artists still cite variations today. Yet despite its great significance to artists, art scholars rarely discuss the saying or its meaning. Those who do seem to have no choice but to deny it: painters don’t really paint themselves, they say, but their sensibility. But why would a phrase that meant so much to great masters, and still does to their followers, require re-phrasing to mean anything? The truth is, as this website demonstrates, it is the images of these visual artists that are veiled, not their words.
Most Recent Articles
All Articles (Alphabetical by Artist, then Title)
Is this merely a scene of everyday life or something more important?
Aertsen’s Cook in front of the Stove (1559)
Sometimes objects with meaning are so prominent and so large, viewers miss them
Aertsen’s Peasants by the Hearth (1556)
Altdorfer's scene of incest is an early example of a long tradition with very similar and surprising meaning
Altdorfer’s Lot and His Daughters (1537)
Remember a few general principles and you will find that the art of understanding art is much easier than you might magine
Andrea Del Sarto’s Madonna in Gloria (1530)
Make sure you always know an artist's real name, the one the artist actually used. It's a very useful tool for interpretation.
Andrea Del Sarto’s St John the Baptist (c.1523)
Even anonymous art can be enjoyed through EPPH's methodology
Anonymous Antiphony from Lausanne (c.1485-90)
Why would a German pacifist like Anselm Kiefer use a Nazi salute as one of his signature gestures?
Anselm Kiefer’s Everyone Stands Under His Own Dome of Heaven (1970)
Find out, even in the work of a little-known painter, how the executioner is the artist and the victim his painting.
Antonio Campi’s Martyrdom of St. Sebastian
If you keep an eye out for underlying shapes, you might even be able to guess the artist's name
Antonio da Fabriano’s St Jerome in His Study (1451)
Here is a good example of how borrowed form borrows meaning. In Artemisia's self-portrait as an Allegory of Painting, she thought of herself as a personification of Art...
Artemisia Gentileschi’s Allegory of Painting (c.1630)
Learn how one scene can turn into another through visual metamorphosis
Bacon’s Two Men Working in a Field (1971)
If it looks odd, there must be a reason. See Balthus horsing around.
Balthus’ The Moroccan Rider with His Horse (1935)
In a short addendum to Part 1, see how Balthus conveyed his alter ego
Balthus’ The Mountain (1937) Part 2
Learn how to deconstruct a portrait by Balthus using a few simple principles
Balthus’ The White Skirt (1937)
Bandinelli's statue in Florence, known more for its competition with Michelangelo's David than for the statue itself, has lessons in it which help explain David
Bandinelli’s Hercules and Cacus (1525-34)
An artist's identification with God was as common in the 20th century as in the Renaissance
Barlach’s The First Day (1922)
See how Giovanni Bellini used a visual pun to pass on his meaning
Bellini’s Madonna of the Pear (c.1485)
Find out how a giant Renaissance altarpiece is all about painting
Bellini’s Pesaro Altarpiece (c. 1471/4)
Why would a great poet just depict fruit on a platter with no other content or meaning? The answer: they wouldn't.
Bonnard’s Fruit on a Red Tablecloth (c.1943)
How Bonnard turned his creative process into a scene in modern Paris
Bonnard’s The Pushcart (c.1897)
See how the second of a pair of paintings by Bosch is also "behind the eye."
Bosch’s St. John on Patmos (1504-5)
A little knowledge of studios goes a long way to understanding art
Botticelli’s Birth of Venus (1484-6): Part One
This masterpiece, like many before and since, must have been the source of inspiration for Picasso's Cubism. As unlikely as that may sound, it all depends on what you can see in The Birth of Venus that experts never have. You'll be one of the first...
Botticelli’s Birth of Venus (1484-6): Part Two
Pastoral genre scenes, although invented by Boucher, abide by art's traditions
Boucher’s Pastoral landscape with a shepherd and shepherdess (c.1730)
Unless you knew that there might be a self-portrait in this Reclining Nude, you'd probably never see it.
Boucher’s Reclining Nude (1730’s)
This a reminder of how close the association was between writing and painting in the Middle Ages
Brother Rufillus’ Self-Portrait (c. 1170-1200)
How a seemingly extraneous figure can be the crux of the whole artwork
Burgkmair’s Archer in Santa Croce in Gerusalemme (1504)
Find out how even Cézanne incorporated a mystical Christian view of life into his art
Cézanne’s Five Bathers (1885-7)
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