摘要
From the variety of types of portraiture,there evolved the imaging of a self-portrait as we see in Saint Catherine of Alexandria by Barbara Longhi of Ravenna(1552-1638).The self-portrait is a unique work of art,an intimate record of a sitter’s personality.It is an acknowledgment of worth,an exercise in technique,and a designator of era,style,and likeness.The self-portrait can be a study in expression,an impersonation of a virtue,or a document in a history of aging.As William Shakespeare noted in Hamlet,“[The self-portrait is]to show virtue her own feature,scorn her own image,and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure.”In the sixteenth-century in Italy,artists often included themselves or their self-portraits in religious and secular scenes as a type of signature,as seen in the paintings of the Longhi family.In their many depictions of Saint Catherine of Alexandria,the Longhis composed two types of such images:a single-solo-image of the saint;and also her presence in a group with saints-a theme known as holy conversation.In her paintings,Barbara Longhi preferred to depict the solo image of Saint Catherine of Alexandria,using herself as a model for the figure of the saint or as a muse impersonating or personifying the saint’s virgo virtue.This essay is composed of two parts:(1)a brief explanation of the meaning of self-portraits in sixteenth-century Italy;and(2)a study of Barbara Longhi’s self-portraits as Saint Catherine of Alexandria.
