الخميس، 14 أكتوبر 2010

A 16th-century woman paints a self-portrait

Self-Portrait, Caterina van Hemessen (Flemish), oil on oak panel, 1548, 30.8 x 24.4 cm, Öffentliche Kunstsammlung, Basel
"This painting is both one of the earliest self-portraits by a woman in the modern age, but one of the first self-portraits by an artist of either gender to display themself in the act of painting—at the time it was more common for the artist to depict themself in a plain sitting, or dressed up as a member of the upper classes."
I have a question for someone who knows more about art than I do.  If a self-portrait like this is executed by viewing oneself in a mirror, then the viewed image would be left/right-reversed.  How did artists compensate for this?  Assume this lady was right-handed; to sketch the self-portrait, would she have posed with her brush in her left hand while facing the mirror?  Or would she have used a camera obscura to project her outline on a wall and have an assistant sketch the outlines?  Or used a series of mirrors to correct the left/right reversal?

Image credit Wikimedia Commons, via La Muse Verte.

ليست هناك تعليقات:

إرسال تعليق