Self-Portrait

1803 · Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Florence

portrait

In his Self-Portrait, the artist depicts himself sitting on a mattress, wrapped in his coat, in a humble but tidy room. The oblique wooden ceiling of the mansard room forms the strongest diagonal accent in a composition that is otherwise determined by a quiet contrast of horizontals and verticals. On the back wall of the room, there is a full bookcase, and books are piled on the desk at the left.

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About the Artist

Tommaso Minardi

1787 – 1871

Italian painter, illustrator, and author, Tommaso Minardi began his career as a pupil of Giuseppe Zauli. His initial activity in Rome consisted in ten years of employment with the engraver Giuseppe Longhi, for whom he did reproduction drawings of Michelangelo's Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel; in addition, he studied the works of Leonardo and Raphael. In 1819, on behest of the neoclassical sculptor Antonio Canova, Minardi was named director of the Academy in Perugia. From 1821 to 1858, he was employed as an instructor at the Accademia di San Luca in Rome.

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