By signing up you agree to terms and conditions and privacy policy. I agree to the Art UK terms and conditions and privacy policy. Sign up to the Art UK newsletter , a weekly edit of insightful art stories. In the Dutch artist Maerten van Heemskerck — painted his Self-portrait , perhaps to commemorate his election as Dean of the Haarlem Painters Guild.
However, he is only partly the subject of this remarkable painting, which is equally a 'portrait' of the Colosseum. Self Portrait with the Colosseum, Rome A scrap of paper bearing the date, Heemskerck's signature and age 55 , painted to look as if stuck to the picture surface with a few blobs of red sealing wax, gives the impression of a painting within a painting.
Overlapping the paper's left-hand edge by a few millimetres, Heemskerck's bust seems part of our space; his sharp, intelligent gaze inviting us to admire. In front of the ruin, we see a small figure sketching, pen and inkpot in hand — presumably the artist himself.
Heemskerck must have sat in this very spot when he drew the Colosseum during his stay in Rome twenty years earlier, in one of many beautiful pen sketches of classical ruins, statues and contemporary views now in the Kupferstichkabinett in Berlin.
Colosseum from the south. Including the Colosseum in his Self-portrait was not simply an act of personal recollection, but an artistic calling card. By Italy had become a goal for many Netherlandish artists, such as the anonymous Flemish artist who drew a panorama of St Peter's then under construction possibly on his return home. Saint Peter's and the Vatican, Rome.
