ABSTRACT
The history of the self-portrait is almost as venerable as that of the portrait itself. Artists have been embedding images of themselves in their works since at least the time of the ancient Egyptians. 1 But the genre of the independent self-portrait really dates from no earlier than the Renaissance, if, indeed, the moment of self-portraiture can be dated with precision. 2 It first finds notable expression in the genre’s foundational series by Albrecht Dürer the younger at the end of the fifteenth century and then, a century and a half later, in those that Rembrandt painted throughout his life. 3
