Turning the Other Cheek: Profile Direction in Self-Portraiture

Abstract

The spatial organization of the forty-seven self-portraits in the exhibition “Face to Face: Three Centuries of Artists' Self-Portraiture” held at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, was analyzed and compared with previously published studies, all of which have obtained their data predominantly from non-self-portraits. In the seventeenth century there was a significant asymmetry in self-portraits for both the direction of profile, with most paintings showing the right profile, and the direction of lighting, with most paintings showing the light coming from the left of the painting. Both these asymmetries declined over time and were not present in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century paintings. The lighting asymmetry and the temporal change confirmed findings with non-self-portraits, but the profile asymmetry was in the opposite direction probably because of the use of mirrors to generate the image being painted. Taken together, the findings support an explanation for asymmetries in portraits of all kinds in terms of the conventions of studio organization.