Autoportrait et emblématique princière à la fin du Moyen Âge

Abstract

Self-Portraiture and Princely Iconography at the End of the Middle AgesIn 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.