Don't know who said that once, but I find it to be true in some sense. Especially for great artists, no matter who they paint, there is something of that artist in the painting. Just as there is something of the singer in a song sung by a great singer, regardless of who composes it.

Case in point. These paintings by Leonardo da Vinci:

Head of a Saviour

La Joconda

Saint John the Baptist

Can there be any doubt that they are simply different aspects of his personality and visage, perhaps at different ages?


[Post modified to comply with photo policy. - Outsports moderator]

[ May 01, 2005, 10:27 PM: Message edited by: m1 ]

creepy. i just started a painting of my friend danny and myself. its huge. 4' X 4'

The "Saint John the Baptist" portrait is even said to be used by some to suggest that Leonardo da Vinci was gay - I assume because of the pose - but evidence as well that many assume it is something of a self-portrait.

Another portrait of St John, this one also known as Bacchus (that a "holy man" would also be associated with a drunken revelry intrigues me - drunk on religion maybe?), might be considered equally sexually confusing, taken out of the context of the time. But why is he pointing in a different direction here? And I notice his big toes are shorter than the second on each foot - a da Vinci trait or an assistant modeling?

I'm glad someone bumped this thread because I had not seen it originally, but this weekend saw a show on Leonardo Da Vinci that made the same argument - in fact it used examples of Da Vinci's work to boost the argument that Da Vinci faked the Shroud of Turin (supposedly the burial shroud of Christ) and used his own face as the face on the shroud!

The show was on the National Geographic channel and quite interesting - it showed how the figure on the shroud is unlikely to be that of a human body (head is too small and set too low for the body, the figure is not distorted as an image from a shrouded human figure would be), and how it could have been created by using a bas-relief that was either heated to actually "burn" the image into the cloth, or by using a <i>camera obscura</i> and an early knowledge of chemical processes now used in photography to create the image on the shroud. Very fascinating.

As part of the show they did demonstrate that there are remarkable similarities in all of Da Vinci's work to his own self-portrait.

I am not familiar with the painting, Head of a Savior; to me it doesn't look like a Leonardo in this reproduction. But the idea that the artist paints himself is very interesting. Usually it's not about just the portrait looking like the artist, but how about when the artist is painting someone exactly how they look, but the painting reveals more about the artist than the sitter. This is almost always my response to the works of Thomas Eakins. Or the works of Corot--can you see the artist in his landscapes, as you can in his portrait-studio work?

I'm assuming Head of a Savior could be a painting based on da Vinci's appearance as a youth. Even if he painted it later, he might remember, and tend to paint, features that resemble what he remembers of how he looked.

Bacchus is thought by some to be painted by someone else, possibly in da Vinci's studio. Tests and observations show that it has suffered several alterations, mostly to landscape features.

Jean Baptiste Camille Corot is one of my favorite landscape painters. Identifying his work is not always easy since he painted on the "cusp" of the transition from realism to impressionism, and gradually drifted from one to the other in his works. The sifting may also have reflected his deteriorating eyesight since he is said not to have liked impressionism at first.

On the other hand JMW Turner's Self-Portrait definitely looks like one of his landscapes to me. And is absolutely striking as always.

Another way of thinking about this is to say or to ask what the painting reveals about the painter. You can often tell much about the painter by the way he works the paint, pays attention to details and which details, by what is omitted or included, color choice and color meanings--questions that are answered simply by looking at the painting, not around it. Again, to look at Eakins' portraits it becomes obvious that he was very concerned for people, very humanistic, very studied, patient and caring.

I've always thought that Eakin's The Swimming Hole said more about his sexuality than the fact he was married with children.

And that he once said \"a naked woman 'is the most beautiful thing there is -- except a naked man'\" lends to the theory, his close mutually-admiring friendship with Walt Whitman aside.

Not sure why, but when I first saw The Thinker I thought it was one of the most erotic paintings by a straight guy that I'd ever seen. Guess there's a little homo in us all.

sportinlife, I enjoy that you have ideas about art, but I think you have to re-think your idea about nakedness/nude and sexuality. The Swimming Hole is a great painting, but it speaks about naturism, not sexuality or sexual preference. Many people want to extend Eakins' nude portraits into the field of sexuality, but I think it was just his philosophy he was expressing.

The Thinker--erotic? Curious. It must be the gaze downward which resonates in your mind.

It's the sum of the things that I reference (plus others) that suggest a 'liberal' notion of sexuality for Eakins. It is always difficult to read such things in the context of their times.

The subtle hints of his life all suggest at least an open attitude toward sexual orientation.

The sexuality of The Thinker derives I guess from the masculine/dandy juxtaposition common among gentlemen of the time: an athlete/aesthete.

This should be of interest...

I can get past the incest, beastiality, exhibitionism and all....but he drank too much milk!?!?! What a freak! wink

Did he prefer whole, skim, or whatever was available at the milking station at the time?

Aussie artist Ross Watson does some interesting things. No Dali, a bit too much like velvet paintings, but at least he's creative.

He calls this \"a modern martyr\"

nice color contrast

always anachronistic

red hot hill with a red hot cycler (Baden)

afl player Brodie Holland is a bit more toned than real life I suspect

Ian Roberts

Ian Roberts again

I think he's a gymnast named Jamie

Magpie's Paul Licuria seems to be a favorite subject after Roberts

Humorous take-off of a Vermeer

Love this reference to Bronzino, Licuria looks so innocent

One must have lifesavers

Ian and his partner

wrestlers

low-rider with a striking background

variation on classic gladiators, man's destructiveness?

Communication

[ May 06, 2005, 02:07 PM: Message edited by: sportinlife ]

Here are some other famous portraits and self-portraits:

Parmigianino: Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror (c. 1524)

Mary Cassatt: Self-Portrait (1878)

Vincent Van Gogh: Self- Portrait. Saint-Rémy (1889)

Paul Gauguin: Self Portrait with the Yellow Christ (1889)

Pierre Matisse: Self-Portrait in a Striped Shirt (1906)

Pablo Picasso: Self-Portrait (1907)

Arnold Schoenberg: Blue Self-Portrait (1910)

Egon Schiele: Self-Portrait (1911)

Amedeo Modigliani: Portrait of Jean Cocteau (1916)

Max Beckmann: Self-Portrait in Tuxedo (1927)

Frida Kahlo: Self- Portrait (1941)

Alex Katz: Self-Portrait (Passing) (1960)

David Hockney: Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) (1967)

Chuck Close: Big Self-Portrait (1968)

Francis Bacon: Self Portrait (1973)

Jean-Michel Basquiat: Self Portrait (1982)

Andy Warhol: Self-Portrait (1986)

Glenn Ligon: Self-Portrait at 11 Years Old (2004)

And an interesting kid's page with lots of self-portraits and questions.

[ May 07, 2005, 12:11 AM: Message edited by: fantomas ]

Very interesting collection fantomas.

Did Basquiat ever do a more realistic likeness of himself. Even most abstract painters and impressionists generally were brutally honest in theeir self-potrayals. Basquiat seemed to hid behind abstract painting. Perhaps out of fear or frustration.

Perhaps Warhol painted him, as he painted himself, in a more realistic style.

I know Basquiat has been accusedof being a mere graffiti artist, though I consider graffiti to often be more interesting than some of the stuff sold in art studios.

Few artists have created a more searing self-portrait than Robert Crumb. And how many have had an entire week of articles dedicated to him by the Guardian?

We recently rented the DVD "Crumb" through Netflix and found the man fascinating, if frustratingly twisted - like many geniuses.

I think my favorite work by him is the obviously self-referential No Way Out, which reminds me of my favorite character from The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. I disagree that his many black caricatures were "racist". But rather, they were the honest torment of an artist who followed his pen where it led him, no matter how dark the corners of his soul. He was certainly not the first to do so.

Such was the source of his brilliant drug-induced scrawlings.

The somewhat surprising anecdotes revealed - at least to me - in the documentary, were his apparently "enormous" penis size (according to a former wife who said his self-depictions were not exagerations); the apparent genetic prevalence of insanity in his family (one brother who commited suicide after the film, another who pulls thread through his body to clear his intestine while sitting on a bed of nails); Crumb's fear of women and preoccupation with thick hairy calves and huge buttocks on "handsome" women (a Freudian fieldtrip); and a host of other more mundane details many of which are mentioned in this entry in Wikipedia.

Apparently he currently resides in the south of France where hopefully, with the balm of his art, he continues to Keep On Trucking.

When I frist chanced upon this painting of Saul and David by Swedish artist Julius Kronberg (1850 - 1921) I thought it looked incredibly homoerotic. Only afterward did I find out that it actually is considered so by most current art critics.

I also find it to be an extremely Aryanized image of these two semitic men - not uncommon in European art.

It is interesting to speculate about how an African or Oriental painter might imagine them.

"Heath" by Vincent Fantauzzo

Heath

The Artist in his painting

Normal Rockwell's self portrait

One arthouse organizer in France has set an interesting exhibit called "Barack Obama in Paris" which I find artistically interesting solely because the best of the works give an honest portrayal of Obama's ears rather than try to do an artsey equivalent of painting them out.

Note in this slide show the black and white chalk drawing and one other painting which both prominently display his ears.

Obama himself has made fun of them, as has his wife. It only goes to show that honesty in art can be as effective as it is anywhere else IMO.

What is very interesting about Obama's images on t-shirts, posters, art, etc., is how iconic those images are and how iconic he is himself. It's equivalent to the image of Che Guevara taken from Alberto Díaz's photo.

I'm totally fascinated by the subject and it'll be very interesting for me how Obama's iconography will develop if he is (hopefully) elected on Nov. 4.

Whether intended or fortuitous one photographer caught this image of Obama with his hand raised like some norse god calling up a storm at a recent rally in Miami.



For someone who wants to play down the right-wing's attempt to make him appear to have a god-complex, he certainly does not seem to be able to avoid striking that pose.

But I find the symbolism in the photo quite striking. A picture can indeed speak a thousand words.

I might add that the fact that he has had difficulty in appealing to Miami's substantial older Jewish population brings to mind the old testament images of Moses. What a mess. How Obama is perceived in history will be a very interesting thing to follow. But our tradition of martyrism is disturbing in religion.

The Medical Arts

Eakins



Billroth



Rembrandt



Most likely each artist saw himself, and placed himself, somewhere in his painting.

Alternative Images for The Season

Ludovico Carracci’s “Kiss of Judas”


Gay Jesus


Black Judas


Gay vampires for Jesus



Alien Jesus

Julián Hernández's Rabioso Sol, Rabioso Cielo is a movie as art. Every frame could be framed. I couldn't find that magnificent shot of the character Ryo offset to the side against a stunningly lit wall of peeling paint. (It says almost as much about his native Mexico as the allusions to ancient native american culture in the "costumes" the leads wear, especially near the end.) but I managed to get a find some screen shots of the smoldering Jorge Becerra who, if there is any justice, we'll see more of in the near future - if that's possible conidering his state of undress in much of the last third of the film:







It's not a movie for the faint-of-heart or impatient. And the wonderfully non-judgemental homoeroticism will preclude it from mass popularity for a few decades, but this is destined to be a "cult classic" if the term has any meaning at all.

It is interesting to compare the painting of Ayuba Suleiman Diallo to the painter William Hoare's self-portarit.

Hoare

Diallo


Unfortunately other extant images of Diallo show less detail and are of much inferior quality such as this one:


But it may show the influence of more than just style, color and quality of rendition that Hoare's original painting is easier on the eye.

He captures the detail of Diallo's hair and other features in an authentic way that the postcard copy obviouly does not even attempt. It was with consdierable surprised that Thomas Bluett observed the intelligence of Diallo in a Maryland prison. It would be interesting to know what Diallo really looked like when first captured.

It will be interesting to see how Norfolk wunderkind Kieron Williamson develops. Especially if he takes up portraiture. His figures thus far seem to be limited to abstracts in the distance such as these in "A Walk in the Park"



and some adorable renderings of dogs. Most of his work reminds me more of the super-realism of an early Turner than Monet or Picasso, two artists with whom he is frequently compared.

Some early Turner watercolors.

Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a work of art


And I would love to add this......and this...


...to wiki's "Category:Male buttocks in photography". But said portraits are not mine to add.

Canadian-American actor Marc Singer as Tarzan:


At the pool:


As a sexy barabarian:



In 2009:


In a sketch, from this blog, done by Scottish graphic artist Euan MacIntosh:


Mr. MacIntosh's self-portrait

Marc Singer's wiki bio

It is often difficult to see the artist in his work when it is not purely representational and realistic. But I think the Basque artist Eduardo Chillida is representative of how that can be done.

The craggy handsome features of the elderly Chillida are a mirror of the ruggedness and exaggerated masculinity of his sculptures:


Chillida as a member of the San Sebastian football team Real Sociedad:


That is especially true when they are juxtaposed to the sea that is such an essential part of the ancient and obscure Euskadi culture that is the common heritage of his people

A stunning large photograph


It would be interesting to see if some of the USA's retired pro athletes expend that excess energy in such art.

After seeing the Werner Herzog film "Cave of Forgotten Dreams" the artwork at Chauvet makes Picasso and Dali look derivative.

This frame gives some of the most intriguing images


One of the artist's hands in the upper right frame is the only clear self-image we have. That in itself is a stunning technique to have appeared 32,000 years ago since one is a "negative" supposedly made by blowing paint onto the hand pressed against the wall.

The elephant-headed baboon figures in the upper left frame are another fascinating contrivance. I wish someone with access to the caves would explore that image more. What is it's date specifically?

And that thing that looks like a cross in the lower right is very interesting. Crosses certainly existed before the Crucifixion. But that early? Or is that image an anomaly that only I am imagining?

So many questions.

Barça striker Lionel Messi's game is, by almost all accounts, a work of art as much of toil. All the great athlete's games are.

But it is interesting that the photographer for a clothing company got the bright idea of placing this icon of Spanish heritage in front of a modern painting that reflects a style popular on the Iberian peninsula since the age of Don Quixote, who indeed may have been its first inspiration.

Equally interesting is the frontal male nudity, more obvious in the expansion of this pose from the same photoshoot, in that painting.

I wonder, is this Messi's home depicted and that painting part of his collection?

If so, they are a reflection on the man more than the photographer. Perhaps he uses his great wealth to paint his own picture of sorts - at least how he sees himself inside.