Anastasis: Research in Medieval Culture and Art (May 2018)
Self-Portrait: Between Normality and Psychosis
Abstract
The article entitled ”Self-Portrait: Between Normality and Psychosis ” makes a comparison between specific international artists’ self-portraits (such as: Vincent van Gogh’s, Syd Barret’s, Maria Lassning’s etc.) and national artists’ self-portraits (such as: Ion Țuculescu’s, Aniela Firon’s etc.) with a proper education in the field of fine arts and specific patients’ self-portraits (diagnosed with schizophrenia and other mental disorders) with no artistic education, in order to highlight the therapeutic role of self-portrait in both cases. Regarding the first case there has been made a comparison between an interesting self-portrait belonging to the Romanian artist Ion Țuculescu called Self-portrait on yellow background and a medieval two handle cooking pot found in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen from Rotterdam which proves a natural connection of the modern period with the medieval one, as a proof that human being’s origins cannot be denied, because they exist in our subconscious. Regarding the second case, there has also been made a comparison between a patient’s self-portrait with Paranoid Schizophrenia and the medieval iconic character Ioana d’Arc, as the patient identifies herself with this historical figure. The main purpose consisted in presenting the way a self-portrait betrays the existence of specific moral disorders through the elements of visual language, like a mirror which reflects a painter’s unseen reality.
