Lombard school, first half of the 19th century century

Lombard school, first half of the nineteenth century

Self-portrait

Oil on canvas, cm 31 x 23,5 - With frame, cm 44,5 x 37,5

The canvas in question shows a splendid example of self-portrait of Lombard origin, referring to the very first half of the nineteenth century. The painting in question is probably the painter himself, who decides to depict himself in the middle of a bust, sitting on a chair, with the tools of his work, or brushes and the wooden palette with various shades of color. The figure emerges clearly from a neutral background of grayish color, which accentuates the three-dimensionality and concreteness. 

At the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the self-portrait returned to a traditional depiction of the painter to emphasize the social role of the artist, usually represented dressed in sumptuous and elegant clothes, flaunting medals, honors and awards granted by their patrons: in this way the artist not only exhibited his profession, but claimed the high prestige. 

Note, for example, how in the canvas the painter depicts himself in typical Napoleonic clothes, with the classic blue spencer (short jacket at the waist) with golden buttons: the so-called "empire fashion", which depopulated in the early nineteenth century, was characterized by a decisive abandonment of the extravagant ethics typical of the eighteenth century, opting for natural hairstyles instead of large wigs and for a sober clothing and devoid of bright colors or showy, more in keeping with the representation of bourgeois authority.

Besides the authority of his role, the self-portrait of the early nineteenth century also had the merit of recovering a particular attention to the details of the face, aimed at investigating the psychological introspection of the effigy: In this case the artist is able to make with a few strokes of color all the depth of the gaze, fixed towards the outside observer, which is magnetic, vibrant and extremely vivid, denoting a great mastery and a high pictorial quality.  

There are many self-portraits and official portraits of artists and writers in the Napoleonic era, precisely the wide social value attributed to this type of representation and as a privileged means for the ostentation of its status symbol.

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