Self-portrait

In Rome they knew him simply as Mario dei Fiori, Mario of the flowers, one of the first Italian painters to build a whole career on flower pieces alone. He made this self-portrait around 1640, and true to the name he placed himself among his blossoms rather than his brushes. Cut flowers were a demanding specialty. They wilt within hours, so the painter had to work quickly and from memory, and the best flower pieces sold for high prices to Roman collectors. Here the man and his subject share a single frame. He would go on painting flowers in Rome for another 30 years.