Гравированный автопортрет и портрет гравера. К вопросу о самосознании и социальном статусе граверов в России второй половины XVIII века

This paper examines the unique self-portrait prints which provide rich material for raising a number of previously overlooked questions related to Russian art in the age of Catherine the Great. It reveals why self-portrait prints were so rare in eighteenth-century Russia; what were the motives of those few printmakers who decided to turn to such an unpopular type of portrait at the time; what was the social position of printmakers; how they viewed themselves and their profession and what are the specifics of self-portraiture in printmaking in comparison with self-portraits in other media. As is shown in this work, the printed self-portrait allowed a printmaker to freely express himself in the way he wanted and also claimed a privileged social position for the depicted, reflecting the desire of the author-model to fit his image into the social hierarchy. The phenomenon was set somewhat apart from the official strategy for the development of Russian art in the eighteenth century, for it presumed a higher status for the artist as individual than was usual at the time, and anticipated, however unconsciously, the depths that would be discovered in artist’s self-portraits in the era of romanticism.