Contenu du sommaire : Autoportrait et représentation de l'individu

From Introspection to Self-Exposure in the Middle Ages
Coming out of the MEDIEVARS (Medieval and Renaissant Self-Representation) research project, this paper highlights the variety of concepts and practices in medieval self-representation. Following clarification of concepts of the person, as individual and as subject, the paper reviews the expressions – literary and pictorial, symbolic and figurative – that are evidence of self-reflection aimed at public exhibition of the self. Seals, signatures, coats of arms, devices, paintings, illuminations, statuaries, and literary self-portraits are combined because of the intentionality they presuppose. They make it possible to assess the emergence of personal awareness and the need to use interdisciplinarity to understand it in proper context. Without being exhaustive, the corpus is representative; though limited to France from the 12th to the 15th centuries, it does not ignore the influence of foreign models (Italy, Germany, Holland).

The Self-Portrait and Representation of the Self in the Middle Ages: Matthieu d'Arras and Prague CathedralIn the history of physical representation of the artist in the Middle Ages, the case of Matthieu d'Arras has a special place. Matthieu d'Arras was the first master mason of St Vitus Cathedral in Prague from 1342/1344 until his death in 1352 and, thanks to the bust representing him in the triforium of the cathedral's chevet, the first medieval architect whose features are known to us. This bust represents the birth of the self-portrait in 15th-century art, a phenomenon that has so far been examined from an exclusively Italian perspective, but which belongs at the end of a long process wherein the face emerged in gothic architecture. At the same time, a new awareness of self by the artist was crystallizing.

Self-Portraiture and Princely Iconography at the End of the Middle Ages
In all civilizations the very purpose of an emblem is to represent a physical or moral individual with a sign, thus producing a representation of this individual through an image, a portrait in the original meaning of the word. The Middle Ages in the West also generated various systems of signs – heraldry especially, but crests, devices, and other ancillary emblematic forms as well – intended to make people and things known and recognized. The arrival of the realistic portrait – the ultimate emblem – in some way completes these successive attempts at designating the individual. The combined exploitation of these numerous signs of identity, more or less controlled by the person being represented, produced a kind of self-portrait which included a variety of facets of the remarkable being that was the medieval individual. Projection into an image, a true duplication of the self, which was often intended for self-celebration or, more accurately, as an empathic projection of spiritual significance, often allowed a prince to transcend his being, which appears to be one of the principles of self-portraiture.

Signature in the Iconographic Constellation of the Dukes of Anjou (14th–15th Centuries)The Dukes of the second house of Anjou, like all the Valois, elaborated a new and extremely rich iconography to assert their position on the political scene. The signature, a sign that is both validation and symbol, is part of this attempt to put power on stage. This still-novel sign in the political world of the period assumed its rightful place beside portraits, badges, devices, and other representational images to describe the individual and his quality. Thus was created a veritable and lavish network of signifiers with multiple connections, skillfully organized and erected in as many iconographic constellations.

Marguerite de Valois's Self Portrait in her Mémoires
Queen Marguerite wrote her Mémoires in about 1600 and provided a founding self-portrait set in historical authenticity. Far from Brantôme's rhetoric and his conventional praise, she intended to tell the truth about her moral being and historical person through a new kind of writing, one that was stylistically simple and elegant, and appropriate for a cultured (male and female) public in the humanist era. Her self-portrait relates the notable facts of her political life, with attention paid to their intimate consequences; the narrative is chronological, yet rhythmically fragmented, thus allowing for an unobtrusive use of different literary genres and moods, borrowed from fiction (from novel to drama), travel diaries, and history. Marguerite appears to be a cultured humanist princess, wishing to appeal to society with a tale that is devoid of pedantry but immersed in literary memory, diffusing an image of her as a heroic and sensitive individual, thus continuing, in modern form, an ancient and renaissant tradition. The literary practice opened the way to a rich tradition of women's memoirs that are societal, “sensitive,” and political all at the same time (Mlle de Montpensier, Hortense and Marie Mancini, Catherine of Russia, etc.).