ABSTRACT
Psychobiography can uncover personal links between artists and their work; it can also provide insights into relationships between individuals and their cultural context that Influence their art. This chapter offers some approaches to reading imagery in terms of its biographical significance. When artists use visual images to comment on art they are situating themselves within an "artistic" lineage. The Mona Lisa, like Las Meninas, is an icon of Western art; both have evoked visual commentary from many artists. The ambivalent attitude of Parmigianino's uncles recurs in the artist's ambivalence toward painting. Gold, according to Rembrandt's biographer Arnold Houbraken, had enormous appeal for the artist, who nevertheless did not pursue alchemy. The role of art as a mirror, or "ape," of nature was also incorporated into Early Christian and medieval hagiography. Visual artists express themselves primarily in imagery and only secondarily in words.
