Abstract

Departing from the work of Georg Simmel on Rembrandt, we try to characterize self-portrait as a moment of inner confrontation and of inner inquiry on our inner self and individuality. All self-portraits are pervaded by the ephemeral character of life, where death is constantly present. The self-portrait is born from the drawing and the drawing develops it in a continuity where the past juts out in the present. The human face is the sum of a duration that moulds its traits, its expression and its variation in a tension that brings the past to a present that is now remade. Thus, the self-portrait, more than the portrait, enables the possibility to transmit what the subject has of unique as an individual. In this sense, the self-portrait represents the knowledge of an individuality felt in the process of life, individuality withdrawn from the stream of life and in the unity of its existence.