self-portrait with hat

The pictorial language borrows from Renaissance portraiture: a prominent, spaceless and timeless depiction that attempts to focus only on the individual, who is willing to assert his subjectivity to a high degree. The transition to nominalism (via moderna), which teaches the recognition and realization of the individual, the subject, is visible in the pictorial art of the 15th and 16th centuries: not only secular princes, but now also citizens can be painted proudly, self-confidently and independently. The social status often conveyed in such representative works of art through ostentatious clothing, often including extravagant headgear, is replaced here by an object that could be understood not as a representation of status and power but as one of withdrawal. The transformation of the “old” man into a modern subject comes to an end as a movement, however, insofar as the hardships of the self-referential subject become apparent. On the other hand, this brings us to another misery: The exhaustion of creation as a result of irreversible and ruthless attempts to emancipate ourselves from nature, ends up harming us in a way that will knock us back into “nature” ourselves.

The shape of the cap is widespread. It is seen (was seen) in the simple peasant world of the East. Perhaps it comes from the sikke, the headgear of the suffis, the dervishes. The term dervish comes from the Urdu language: darwaishanathabiyath. This term describes an attitude that has little regard for material possessions and worldly prestige. The translation as “beggar” is not necessarily to be understood literally, as the term serves as the epitome of the fact that those who are on the path of seeking God recognize their own spiritual “poverty in relation to the riches of God”.