MARIA

Do you know which the most visited museum ever? No, it’s not the Louvre, nor the Prado and not MoMA, it’s not any of those giants. This one can be small and at the same time gigantic! It is visited every day, by all of us. I know, this seems like a riddle, I’ll answer right away! I am talking about the Egocentricity Museum, located in the social networks. The artists in display are all of us. We can compare ourselves to visual artists, we shape what we want to our image, or worse we shape our image to what we see in our feeds, to unreal expectations. At times, we forget what we see online it’s an illusion, it passes us by how ephemeral and staged things are.

There’s a type of paintings that remind us that nothing lasts forever, that everything has an end. Throughout centuries, Still Lives composed by several elements, but there are two frequently used, which refer to the fugacity of the shallow things in life, they are fruit (perishable) and something to do with death. A bit morbid, I know. To lighten up the mood, let’s take a look at a 21st century example, Naturaleza Muerta Contemporanea, by the Argentinian artist Nicolas Romero, also known as Ever. Personally, here are displayed some of the necessities and addictions of today’s society. Yet, not being an art critic myself, I’ll leave it up to your judgement.

Going back in time, there wasn’t always the habit of artist signing their own pieces, remaining anonymous.During  the Renaissance, the artists start to claim their authorship. They also wanted be recognised by their work, not having all eyes just on the pieces, especially when they were mainly ordered by great personalities. They could occasionally use themselves as models, but never as a main figure. I’d like to stand out that by analysing some self portraits, we can comprehend how the artist positioned themselves in society, I guess the equivalent of today’s selfies. Let’s take a look at two particular examples, even though they are one hundred years apart.  

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Durer portraits himself nobler and nobler as time passes, idealising his face, something Renascence like, ending up looking Jesus like in his last self portrait. On the other hand, Rembrandt, despite of having hundreds of self portraits, some more renowned than others, here we have three of the most iconic ones. They appear to be more frank and genuine, seeking to reflect his truth, without a drop of shame on displaying the old age. In his last self portrait, at the age of 63, a year before his death, the painter was already sick, yet he portrayed himself as he was.

Another particularity in painting is, even in commissioned works, some painters dared to place themselves inside the picture. So did Rafael, Jan Van Eyck and, perhaps the most audacious of all, Velázquez, in the iconic piece, Las Meninas. Here the painter is more highlighted than the Spanish king and queen, found at the back, outside the room. Velázquez case is rather unique, because he was not only the official painter for the Spanish court, but also a specialist, traveling abroad to gather artworks in order to enrich the royal collection.

Either way, artist took a stand, that they were not only artisans, but artists worthy of recognition, especially the ones who did not came from wealthy families. One can say this vanity is justified, every artist is vain about their work. In the meanwhile, there are other personalities who are vain just for themselves, due to their self centeredness. Maybe the most remarkable example of all is King Louis XIV, the Sun King, author of the expression “L’Etat c’est moi”, meaning “The state is me”, alongside his megalomaniac Versaille Palace.

Here, he order the construction of a palace where the whole French court could be. There was one ultimate requirement, that his room was the center of the whole palace, linking everything turned around him, like the sun itself. The king faced life as a permanent theater play, where he was the leading actor. When he was in fact on stage, playing his favourite character Apollo, God of the sun, he was painted in gold, just like the celestial body.

To conclude, I’d like to quote Ernesto Sabato, an Argentinian author: “Vanity is so fantastic, that it even induces us to worry about what people will think about us once we’re dead and buried.” Yes,  this is true, but when we go to a cemetery, we find it filled with statues of death, it is also vain, so much, that it does not realise, it’s us who come off best, because art will always make us immortals!