Painters needed cheaper mirrors before the self-portrait could really take off
An Egyptian sculptor named Bak carved his own likeness around 1365 BC, yet self-portraits only became common in Europe from the mid-15th century. Better, cheaper mirrors and the rise of panel painting let artists study their own faces, and Jan van Eyck's turbaned man of 1433 may be the first panel example.
Before the Renaissance, artists often slipped themselves into crowds. Medieval and early Renaissance painters staging Bible stories or classical myths used real people as models, and the painter frequently turned up near the edge of the scene, half hidden behind the main actors. Benozzo Gozzoli went further in his Procession of the Magi of 1459 for the Palazzo Medici, writing his name on his own hat, and Sandro Botticelli later placed himself among the onlookers of an Adoration of the Magi in 1475, turning away from the holy scene to meet our gaze.
Albrecht Dürer, who lived from 1471 to 1528, was probably the first artist to paint himself again and again. He left at least twelve images of himself, beginning with a silverpoint drawing made at thirteen. At twenty-two he painted himself holding a thistle, likely as a gift for his fiancée Agnes Frey, and in his final self-portrait, shown publicly in Nuremberg, he gave himself a face strikingly like that of Christ. His income came mainly from prints bearing his famous monogram, so managing his public image was also good business.
Mirrors play tricks in some of the most celebrated examples. In the Arnolfini Portrait of 1434, van Eyck is probably one of two tiny figures reflected in a mirror. That picture hung in the Madrid palace where Diego Velázquez worked, and it may have inspired Las Meninas of 1656, in which Velázquez stands openly at his easel beside the royal family, a painter visible in an official royal picture for the first time.
By the Baroque era, most established artists had at least drawn themselves. A self-portrait kept in the studio doubled as a sample for prospective clients and spared the trouble of hiring a model, and Rembrandt's unprecedented output in paint and print showed how far the form could go. Women painters embraced it too: Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun painted 37, many of them copies made to sell.
Source: Self-portrait
