Tintoretto, Jacopo (1518-1594)
Autoritratto (Self-Portrait)
c.1588
Oil on canvas, 63 x 52 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris
Tintoretto painted this self-portrait for the German goldsmith and art dealer Hans Jakob König who, based in Venice, was building a collection of artists’ portraits. Nearly seventy years old, the painter chooses to represent himself strictly frontal, as he observes himself in a mirror, without omitting anything about the passage of time. Despite the drooping eyelids, the fixed gaze reveals an intact determination and the awareness of one’s own genius. The image also evokes representations of Christ the Redeemer, a model for imitation. (Louvre)
Compare:
Manet, Édouard (1832-1883)
Copie de l’Autoportrait du Tintoret
1854
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon