7. Self-portraiture, photography, and performance

The relationship between visual and literary self-portraits is mutual. Portraiture and self-portraiture in art have frequently been linked to biography and autobiography. This is true in particular of serial representations, as in the sequence of over eighty portraits of himself that Rembrandt painted or drew at different stages of his life, from youth to old age, which have often been described as Rembrandt’s autobiography. ‘Self-portraiture, photography, and performance’ considers the autobiographies of Benvenuto Cellini and John Ruskin, then the new and heightened relationship between text and visual image that emerged after the advent of photography in the early 19th century. The role of autobiography as performance is also discussed.