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.

The research project was devoted to the embedded self-portrait, namely an artist's 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 investigated the prehistory of this early modern boom and examined the early phase of the embedded self-portrait. The project aimed to systematically record, for the first time, all embedded self-portraits in 15th-century wall and panel paintings that have been discussed in research, focusing on the Italian, German-speaking and early Netherlandish regions. This kind of overview responds to a frequently expressed art historical desideratum. The project was divided into two central tasks: (1) Cataloguing, consisting of the recording, processing and evaluation of case studies discussed in the literature, their classification in a catalogue of criteria, and their preparation as database entries. (2) The design and development of a database for recording and contextualising the case studies, including a theoretical structure, and visualising them via the Metapictor website Metapictor (https://explore-research.uibk.ac.at/arts/metapictor/). As an extension of the project's content, (3) the conference An der Schwelle des Bildes. Funktionen des Selbstporträts in der Bilderzählung der Frühen Neuzeit ("On the Threshold of the Image: Functions of the Self-Portrait in Early Modern Visual Narrative") (October 10-11, 2025, University of Innsbruck) was held with the participation of leading portrait researchers. Results were published in the conference proceedings of the same title, covering a wide range of topics from theoretical foundations to early developments and contemporary art. The database Metapictor represents a highly developed system. Comprehensive functions such as internal and external links, pdf exports, and a combined full-text and filter search make the database an efficient research tool. The database structure and data sets (with the exception of the visual material) have been archived in the research data repository of the University of Innsbruck and made available for continuing use (https://doi.org/10.48323/tcn8m-dfq28).