L’image revendiquée : la prise de conscience d’une dignité des métiers d’arts à la fin du Moyen Âge

Abstract

Considered as a craftman for a long time, the artist, especially the painter tries to gain during the last centuries of the Middle Ages a higher status. This claim involves the writing, but, particularly in the Flemish area, images. The organization of guilds allows the painters to assert themselves and be placer under the patronage of St Luke. Rogier van der Weyden is probably the first to represent himself under the features of the evangelist, a way of claiming his artistic dignity; this innovation is widely imitated in Flanders and Italy, until the XVIth century, when it is no longer necessary to hide under the guise of the holy figure. Now, painters fully assume their distinction from self-portraits.

Keywords

• artist
• fraternities
• painter
• St Luke
• self-Portrait