Self-Portrait

Leon Battista Alberti

National Gallery of Art

This bronze, oval medallion shows the profile of a man facing our left, his head and neck filling the space. He has short wavy hair and a long, pointed nose. He looks steadily into the distance to our left, and his lips are closed. His garment wraps around the back of his neck and is knotted at the base of his throat. The capital letters “L BAP” run vertically up near the edge of the medallion in the space behind his neck to our right. A symbol under his chin to our left is made up of a wing arched over a stylized eye. Light glints on the deep brown bronze surface, especially on the front of the chin, cheeks, and forehead, and in his choppy hair.