The majority of studies of Rembrandt's work, especially of his self-portraits, approach issues of the self and representation from a conventionally Cartesian dualist perspective. This chapter outlines a comparative analysis of the two philosophical dualist tendencies of Platonism and Cartesianism in relation to classical and Christian portraiture. It examines the early stages of the formation of the modern dualist portrait, and questions the level of success of these positions in relation to surviving classicist tendencies within the Dutch Republic. The black and white attire and rigid poses of seventeenth-century Dutch citizen portraiture are commonly perceived as a clear opposition to the colourful, relaxed, and gestural poses of noble self-presentation. The 1566 Protestant riots against the Catholic Church are the historical moment that brought into being the subsequent Dutch state and social reforms, which in turn provided the foundations for the emergence of an early bourgeois culture.