Self portait as an artist, holding a drawing board and implement

Art Historical Context

Created around 1645, this intimate etching presents Pietro Testa an Italian Baroque artist celebrated for his inventive printmaking, as he pauses mid-work with drawing board and implement in hand. The modest sheet size invites close viewing, allowing visitors to appreciate the fine, expressive lines that define Testa’s distinctive graphic style. Though the print also carries the name of Flemish engraver Arnold van Westerhout, the image is widely understood as Testa’s own self-portrait, a rare and personal statement from an artist who rarely depicted himself. Etching, the medium chosen here, o...

About the Artist

Pietro Testa|Arnold van Westerhout · 1612–1650

Pietro Testa was born in Lucca in 1612 and, in accordance with the conventions of Italian artistic training, made his way to Rome while still young. There he studied under two of the leading painters of the early seventeenth century: Domenichino, from whom he absorbed a taste for classical restraint and narrative clarity, and Pietro da Cortona, whose more exuberant Baroque manner offered a contras...