Giuseppe Pirrone - Self-Portrait

The self-portrait is a genre that has been widespread throughout the history of art up to the present day. The first examples date back to the Middle Ages, but not as an independent genre, but rather contextualized within a work. As the artist's self-awareness and his or her role developed, self-portraits, especially those set within other works, began to gain popularity as early as the Renaissance. The first examples of independent self-portraits, however, date back to the 16th century. Often, the artist's self-portrait serves as a sort of stylistic manifesto for the painter who conceived it.

The artist Giuseppe Pirrone specialized primarily in the production of portraits on medals. He crafted these portraits with exceptional realism and physiognomic truth, thanks to his remarkable technique. All of this presupposed, before the transition to bronze medals, the production of preparatory drawings, the quality of which we can gain an idea of ​​by looking at this self-portrait. Using a simple formal medium, that of stained pen, Pirrone succeeded in conveying complete truth, not only physiognomic, but also expressive and psychological. The technique used was light hatching, through which the artist achieved a chiaroscuro effect that softens the volumes in the shadows.

Giuseppe Fortunato Pirrone was born in Borgetto in 1898 and died in Rome in 1979. Much of his artistic career was spent in the city of Noto. Specializing primarily in medal design, he received numerous public commissions and painted portraits of figures such as Luigi Pirandello and Leonardo Sciascia. He taught sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Catania and participated in several editions of the Rome Quadrennial and the Venice Biennale.

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