Here are a few images that, for one or more reasons, have been suggested to be presumed, probable or possible self-portraits of artists for whom there is a shortage of definitive ones.
To me, there is often a certain look in the eyes of a self-portrait — one that I think comes from the mental shift involved in drawing or painting — an odd combination of far-away and intensely focused, almost trance-like.
It’s only there in direct self-portraits, not in those involving more than one mirror. I see it in the pieces by Villers, Van Eyck, Botticelli and Da Vinci. The Vermeer is too dark to see. The Bruegel, if a self-portrait, is a two-mirror setup. The others just seem indeterminate. Not that my assessment means anything; I just find it an interesting thing to look for in possible self-portraits.
See my post on “The Face of Leonardo?“.
(Images above: Marie-Denise Villers, Jan van Eyck, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Giorgione, Sandro Botticelli, Peter de Hooch, Johannes Vermeer, Leonardo da Vinci)