1640, Rembrandt van Rijn, Self Portrait at the Age of 34 (detail) -- National Gallery (London)
From the museum label: Rembrandt presents himself as wealthy, successful and confident, in keeping with his position as one of Amsterdam's leading painters. His pose is taken from Titian's Man with a Quilted Sleeve (on display elsewhere in the Gallery), which was then thought to depict the Italian poet Ludovico Ariosto. Copying this famous pose was a bold statement: that painters were the equal of poets.
1640, Rembrandt van Rijn, Self Portrait at the Age of 34 (detail) -- National Gallery (London)
From the museum label: Rembrandt presents himself as wealthy, successful and confident, in keeping with his position as one of Amsterdam's leading painters. His pose is taken from Titian's Man with a Quilted Sleeve (on display elsewhere in the Gallery), which was then thought to depict the Italian poet Ludovico Ariosto. Copying this famous pose was a bold statement: that painters were the equal of poets.