Embedded Self-Portraits in Fifteenth-Century Painting

The research project is devoted to the embedded self-portrait, namely an artists self-portrait that is integrated into a larger pictorial context. The embedded self-portrait is a phenomenon that experienced widespread popularity in European painting from the sixteenth century and that was used by artists to address their authorial role with respect to their medium and at times to develop complex forms of self-representation. The project will investigate the prehistory of this early modern boom and examine the early phase of the embedded self- portrait in the fifteenth century. The assessment, description, and classification of all identifieable embedded self-portraits from the fifteenth century will form the basis for a comprehensive understanding as well as a reassessment. This genre has never yet been systematically studied and its significance has also been underrated. Even the terms integriertes Selbstporträt (embedded self-portrait) and Selbstporträt in Assistenz (self-portrait in assistance) imply an auxiliary or subordinate role that does not do justice to its function. Through comparative iconographical and iconological assessments of the individual examples the specific significance of the motif will be explored. Against the background of approaches used by visual studies, the media-reflective dimension and the meta-pictorial content of these self-portraits will be analysed thus opening up a perspective for future scholarly examination. A systematic survey and investigation of the embedded self-portrait in the wall and panel paintings of the fifteenth century in Italy and the German-speaking and Early Netherlandish areas will be performed. To this end, first, all embedded examples identified thus far in the literature will be systematically compiled and analysed and reviewed in a critical catalogue based on a clearly structured set of criteria. The results will be made accessible online in an open-access data bank. This kind of overview responds to a frequently expressed art historical desideratum. Research thus far has been devoted to individual uses of this form of self-portrait, at times quite intensively. But no rigorous overview or systematic examination exists. The project will contribute to closing these gaps and doing justice to the underappreciated significance of the genre.