Self-portrait holding a portrait of her sister

Rosalba Carriera's 1715 self-portrait holding a portrait of her sister Angela, now in the Uffizi Gallery, is one of the most intimate and revealing works in her output. Self-portraits were an established convention for artists seeking to demonstrate skill while also asserting professional identity, and including her sister creates a layered image — a portrait within a portrait, a declaration of familial love and artistic capability simultaneously. Angela Carriera was Rosalba's lifelong companion and assistant, and her death in 1737 would send Rosalba into deep depression that contributed to her eventual blindness. The Uffizi, which holds portraits by many of the greatest European artists, received this self-portrait as a donation from Carriera herself in 1746, when she was losing her sight — a gesture that placed her permanently in the company of Raphael, Titian, and other masters who had similarly donated self-portraits to the collection.

The doubled structure of self-portrait containing sister's portrait required Carriera to differentiate two representational registers: her own face observed live in a mirror, and the smaller portrait she holds, which is itself a depicted pastel. The interplay between the two creates a meditation on likeness, love, and the artist's eye.