Five centuries of self-portraits.(Report from Europe)(Self Portrait: Renaissance to Contemporary)

Even the most impoverished artist has one model readily available: he or she has only to look in the mirror. Remarkably, there have been scarcely any major exhibitions on the subject before Self Portrait: Renaissance to Contemporary, a large show on view at the National Portrait Gallery in London from October 20 to January 29, 2006. It will then be seen at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, from February 17 to May 14, 2006.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The exhibition comprises fifty-five works by fifty-five artists. The earliest is a self-portrait by Jan van Eyck that dates from about 1433, while the latest is a self-portrait being painted specially for the show by Chuck Close. Among the highlights are the seven early works collected by the Medici family and now displayed in the "Vasari corridor" at the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence. Some artists who are included are known for their self-portraits--Rembrandt, Vincent van Gogh and Frida Kahlo, among others. There are also examples by Annibale Carracci, Diego Velazquez, William Hogarth, Angelica Kauffmann, ...