The Constructed Self

Self-portraits reveal how artists want to be seen — which is never quite how they actually are:

• Mirrors made the genre possible in the 15th century
• The artist was the one model who was always free and patient
• Rembrandt's 80-plus self-portraits set the template for artistic self-examination
• Dürer's Christ-like pose claimed divine creative power for artists

Every self-portrait answers two questions at once: What do I look like? And what do I want you to think I am? The gap between those answers is where the art lives.