Self-portrait

The yellow and emaciated face, the red and fixed eyes produce a disturbing contrast with the smug smile of the artist, closed in the usual brown jacket. The inner peace that Ligabue yearned for is evoked in the bucolic representation of the flowery field in the background, with the butterfly alighting on stems rendered with a few, very rapid strokes. The low cut of the figure, almost at the waist, and the disproportion between the body and the head contribute to making the figure of the artist even more emaciated and ghostly, giving it a sense of painful presence.